
Book ^3t?^. 

Copyright }1° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The Alhambra 




COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY GINN AND COMPANY 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
915.8 



St 






4r.^ 



Cbt satftengum Bregg 

GlNN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS ■ BOSTON ■ U.S.A. 



DEC 15 1915 

CQ)CI.A41«860 



PREFACE 



^^HERE is no better way to tell the story of the prepa- 
ration of Irving's " Alhambra "' than to quote from the 
preface written by the author to accompany his revised 
edition of 185 1. 

Rough drafts of some of the following tales and essays were 
actually written during a residence in the Alhambra ; others were 
subsequently added, founded on notes and observations made there. 
Care was taken to maintain local coloring and verisimilitude ; so that 
the whole might present a faithful and living picture of that micro- 
cosm, that singular little world into which I had been fortuitously 
thrown ; and about which the external world had a very imperfect 
idea. It was my endeavor scrupulously to depict its half Spanish, 
half Oriental character ; its mixture of the heroic, the poetic, and 
the grotesque ; to revive the traces of grace and beautx' fast fading 
from its walls ; to record the regal and chivalrous traditions con- 
cerning those who once trod its courts ; and the whimsical and 
superstitious legends of the motley race now burrowing among 
its ruins. 

The papers thus roughly sketched out lay for three or four years 
in my portfolio, until I found myself in London, in 1832, on the 
eve of returning to the United States. I then endeavored to arrange 
them for the press, but the preparations for departure did not allow 
sufficient leisure. Several were thrown aside as incomplete : the 
rest were put together somewhat hastily and in rather a crude and 
chaotic manner. 

In the present edition I have revised and rearranged the whole 
work, enlarged some parts, and added others, including the papers 

[iii] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

originally omitted ; and have thus endeavored to render it more 
complete and more worthy of the indulgent reception with which 
it has been favored. 

The text of this volume has been taken from Irving's 
revision. A few of the chapters, which were not essential to 
the narrative, have been omitted in order to keep the limits 
of the book within a more readable compass, and here and 
there a slight abridgment has seemed advisable in order to 
make the work entirely suitable for any age or class of readers. 
It is believed that the charm of this masterpiece has in no 
way been impaired by these few changes. 

The notes at the end of the volume have been arranged by 
pages so that they may be related easily to the passages which 
they explain without interrupting the reading of the text. 

Thanks are due to Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, the pub- 
lishers of Irving's works, for their kind permission to reprint 
"The Alhambra." It is a pleasure also to acknowledge the 
valuable assistance of Mr. Norman Irving Black, whose de- 
lightful illustrations will enable the reader to picture more 
vividly in his mind many of the scenes described in this book, 

E. K. R. 



[iv] 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

THE JOURNEY 3 

PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA 39 

IMPORTANT NEGOTIATIONS — THE AUTHOR SUCCEEDS TO 

THE THRONE OF BOABDIL 54 

' INHABITANTS OF THE ALHAMBRA 63 

THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS 68 

THE JESUITS' LIBRARY 75 

ALHAMAR, THE FOUNDER OF THE ALHAMBRA .... -J^ 

YUSEF ABUL HAGIG, THE FINISHER OF THE ALHAMBRA . 85 

THE MYSTERIOUS CHAMBERS .' 90 

PANORAMA FROM THE TOWER OF COMARES I02 

THE BALCONY no 

^ THE ADVENTURE OF THE MASON II4 

THE COURT OF LIONS 120 

MEMENTOS OF BOABDIL 130 

LOCAL TRADITIONS 135 

THE HOUSE OF THE WEATHERCOCK 1 39 

^LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER -.142 

VISITORS TO THE ALHAMBRA 163 

THE GENERALIFE 169 

■=^ LEGEND OF PRINCE AHMED AL KAMEL; OR, THE PILGRIM 

OF LOVE 173 

[v] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

PAGE 

LEGEND OF THE MOOR'S LEGACY 210 

LEGEND OF THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES . . . 234 

LEGEND OF THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA 262 

THE VETERAN 281 

THE GOVERNOR AND THE NOTARY 284 

GOVERNOR MANCO AND THE SOLDIER 292 

THE CRUSADE OF THE GRAND MASTER OF ALCANTARA - 3'I 

SPANISH ROMANCE 320 

LEGEND OF DON MUNIO SANCHO DE HINOJOSA .... 324 

THE LEGEND OF THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER 332 

THE AUTHOR'S FAREWELL TO GRANADA 345 

NOTES 349 

VOCABULARY 363 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The Gate of Justice 2 

The Alhambra from the Generalife 3 

The Wine Gate — Alhambra 17 

The Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada 29 

Map showing the Alhambra, Granada, and Surroundings ... 38 

The Approach to the Alhambra 39 

Granada from the Generalife 41 

The Court of Lions 49 

Granada from the Alhambra . . 54 

The Lion Fountain, Court of Lions 57 

Inside the Gate of Justice 63 

The Alhambra and Valley of the Darro 68 

Tower of Comares and Court of Myrtles 71 

The Alhambra from " San Miguel " — Granada 75 

Caves of Gipsies in the Albaicin '77 

Walls and Towers of the Alhambra 85 

Fountain of Lindaraxa 90 

The Queen's Chamber 93 

The Garden of Lindaraxa 99 

Spanish Girls dancing — Granada 102 

Street of the Darro iio 

Street of the Albaicin 114 

Street of the Darro 117 

Palace of Charles \' 1 20 

The Hall of Justice 123 

The Court of Lions 127 

X'alley of the Darro. at the Foot of the Sacro Monto .... 130 

The Albaicin from the Alhambra 135 

Ruins of Old Aqueduct which once supplied the Alhambra with 

\Vater 137 

r vii 1 



THEALHAMBRA 

PAGE 

Up the Darro Valley 139 

El Bano de la Cara — Toledo 142 

A Court of the Generalife 149 

The Alhambra from a Window of the Generalife 16 

The Sanctum Sanctorum 1 651 

A Court of the Generalife 16 

The Generalife from the Tower of Comares .171 

Guadalquivir Bridge — Cordova 1 73 

The Generalife, the Alhambra, and Ciranada from " Silla del 

Moro" (Seat of the Moor) 187 

A Court of the Generalife 207 

Generalife from the Alhambra 210 

Tower of the Princesses 234 

Towers and Walls of the Alhambra 249 

Bridge Gate — Cordova 262 

The Little Mosque — Alhambra . 265 

Market-Place — Jaen 281 

View of the Tajo-Ronda 284 

The Vermilion Towers 292 

Bridge of Alcantara — Toledo , 3' i 

Bridge of Alcantara — Toledo ,320 

Old Arab Mill — Guadalquivir 324 

Garden of the Alcazar — Seville 332 

The Cathedral — Seville 345 






[ viii ] 



THE ALHAMBRA 



^^l.-^:.' 




.wtf^w mvitfC /HkK-jf 



THE GATE OF JUSTICE 



^«>_^:-^^*^#l:C; 







THE ALHAMBRA 



THE JOURNEY 

N THE spring of 1829, the author of this work, whom 
curiosity had brought into Spain, made a rambhng expe- 
dition from Seville to Granada in company with a friend, 
a member of the Russian embassy at Madrid. Accident had 
thrown us together from distant regions of the globe, and 
a similarity of taste led us to wander together among the 
romantic mountains of Andalusia. Should these pages meet 
his eye, wherever thrown by the duties of his station, whether 
mingling in the pageantry of courts, or meditating on the 
truer glories of nature, may they recall the scenes of our 
adventurous companionship, and with them the recollection 
of one, in whom neither time nor distance will obliterate the 
remembrance of his gentleness and worth. 

And here, before setting forth, let me indulge in a few 
previous remarks on Spanish scenery and Spanish travelling. 

[3] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Many are apt to picture Spain to their imaginations as a soft, 
southern region, decked out with luxuriant charms of volup- 
tuous Italy. On the contrary, though there are exceptions in 
some of the maritime provinces, yet, for the greater part, it 
is a stern, melancholy country, with rugged mountains, and 
long sweeping plains, destitute of trees, and indescribably 
silent and lonesome, partaking of the savage and solitary 
character of Africa. What adds to this silence and loneli- 
ness is the absence of singing-birds, a natural consequence of 
the want of groves and hedges. The vulture and the eagle 
are seen wheeling about the mountain cliffs and soaring over 
the plains, and groups of shy bustards stalk about the heaths ; 
but the myriads of smaller birds, which animate the whole 
face of other countries, are met with in but few provinces in 
Spain, and in those chiefly among the orchards and gardens 
which surround the habitations of man. 

In the interior provinces the traveller occasionally traverses 
great tracts cultivated with grain as far as the eye can reach, 
waving at times with verdure, at other times naked and sun- 
burnt, but he looks round in vain for the hand that has tilled 
the soil. At length he perceives some village on a steep 
hill or rugged crag, with mouldering battlements and ruined 
watch-tower — a stronghold, in old times, against civil war or 
Moorish inroad ; for the custom among the peasantry of 
congregating together for mutual protection is still kept up 
in most parts of Spain, in consequence of the maraudings 
of roving freebooters. 

But though a great part of Spain is deficient in the garni- 
ture of groves and forests, and the softer charms of orna- 
mental cultivation, yet its scenery is noble in its severity and 
in unison with the attributes of its people ; and I think that 

[4] 



THE JOURNEY 

I better understand the proud, hardy, frugal, and abstemi- 
ous Spaniard, his manly defiance of hardships and contempt 
of effeminate indulgences, since I have seen the country 
he inhabits. 

There is something, too, in the sternly simple features of 
the Spanish landscape, that impresses on the soul a feeling 
of sublimity. The immense plains of the Castiles and of La 
Mancha, extending as far as the eye can reach, derive an in- 
terest from their very nakedness and immensity, and possess, 
in some degree, the solemn grandeur of the ocean. In rang- 
ing over these boundless wastes, the eye catches sight here 
and there of a straggling herd of cattle attended by a lonely 
herdsman, motionless as a statue, with his long slender pike 
tapering up like a lance into the air ; or beholds a long train 
of mules slowly moving along the waste like a train of camels 
in the desert ; or a single horseman, armed with blunderbuss 
and stiletto, and prowling over the plain. Thus the country, 
the habits, the very looks of the people, have something of 
the Arabian character. The general insecurity of the country 
is evinced in the universal use of weapons. The herdsman 
in the field, the shepherd in the plain, has his musket and 
his knife. The wealthy villager rarely ventures to the market- 
town without his trabnco, and, perhaps, a servant on foot with 
a blunderbuss on his shoulder ; and the most petty journey 
is undertaken with the preparation of a warlike enterprise. 

The dangers of the road produce also a mode of travelling 
resembling, on a diminutive scale, the caravans of the East. 
The arrieros, or carriers, congregate in convoys, and set off 
in large and well-armed trains on appointed days ; while ad- 
ditional travellers swell their number, and contribute to their 
strength. In this primitive way is the commerce of the 

[5] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

country carried on. The muleteer is the general medium of 
traffic, and the legitimate traverser of the land, crossing the 
peninsula from the Pyrenees even to the gates of Gibraltar. 
He lives frugally and hardily : his alforjas of coarse cloth 
hold his scanty stock of provisions ; a leathern bottle, hanging 
at his saddle-bow, contains wine or water for a supply across 
barren mountains and thirsty plains ; a mule-cloth spread 
upon the ground is his bed at night, and his pack-saddle his 
pillow. His low but clean-limbed and sinewy form betokens 
strength ; his complexion is dark and sunburnt ; his eye res- 
olute, but quiet in its expression, except when kindled by 
sudden emotion ; his demeanor is frank, manly, and cour- 
teous, and he never passes you without a grave salutation : 
"" Dios giiarde a nsted ! " "' Va ustcd con Dios, Caballero ! " 
— '" God guard you ! " " God be with you, Cavalier ! " 

As these men have often their whole fortune at stake upon 
the burden of their mules, they have their weapons at hand, 
slung to their saddles, and ready to be snatched out for des- 
perate defence ; but their united numbers render them secure 
against petty bands of marauders, and the solitary bandolero, 
armed to the teeth, and mounted on his Andalusian steed, 
hovers about them, like a pirate about a merchant convoy, 
without daring to assault. 

The Spanish muleteer has an inexhaustible stock of songs 
and ballads, with which to beguile his incessant wayfaring. 
The airs are rude and simple, consisting of but few inflections. 
These he chants forth with a loud voice, and long, drawling 
cadence, seated sideways on his mule, who seems to listen 
with infinite gravity, and to keep time with his paces to the 
tune. The couplets thus chanted are often old traditional 
romances about the Moors, or some legend of a saint, or 

[6] 



THE JOURNEY 

some love ditty ; or, what is still more frequent, some ballad 
about a bold contrabandista, or hardy bandolero, for the 
smuggler and the robber are poetical heroes among the com- 
mon people of Spain. Often, the song of the muleteer is 
composed at the instant, and relates to some local scene, or 
some incident of the journey. This talent of singing and 
improvising is frequent in Spain, and is said to have been 
inherited from the Moors, There is something wildly pleasing 
in listening to these ditties among the rude and lonely scenes 
they illustrate, accompanied as they are by the occasional 
jingle of the mule-bell. 

It has a most picturesque effect also to meet a train of 
muleteers in some mountain pass. First you hear the bells 
of the leading mules, breaking with their simple melody the 
stillness of the airy height ; or, perhaps, the voice of the 
muleteer admonishing some tardy or wandering animal, or 
chanting, at the full stretch of his lungs, some traditionaiy 
ballad. At length you see the mules slowly winding along 
the cragged defile, sometimes descending precipitous cliffs, 
so as to present themselves in full relief against the sky, 
sometimes toiling up the deep arid chasms below you. As 
they approach, you descry their gay decorations of worsted 
stuffs, tassels, and saddle-cloths, while, as they pass by, the 
ever ready trabuco, slung behind the packs and saddles, 
gives a hint of the insecurity of the road. 

The ancient kingdom of Granada, into which we were 
about to penetrate, is one of the most mountainous regions 
of Spain. Vast sierras, or chains of mountains, destitute of 
shrub or tree, and mottled with variegated marbles and 
granites, elevate their sunburnt summits against a deep-blue 
sky ; yet in their rugged bosoms lie engulfed verdant and 

[7] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

fertile valleys, where tLcrrtdditcrc aiiu the garden strive for 
mastery, and the very rock is, as it were, compelled to yield 
the fig, the orange, and the citron, and to blossom with the 
myrtle and the rose. 

In the wild passes of these mountains the sight of walled 
towns and villages, built like eagles' nests among the cliffs, 
and surrounded by Moorish battlements, or of ruined watch- 
towers perched on lofty peaks, carries the mind back to the 
chivalric days of Christian and Moslem warfare, and to the 
romantic struggle for the conquest of Granada. In traversing 
these lofty sierras the traveller is often obliged to alight, and 
lead his horse up and down the steep and jagged ascents and 
descents, resembling the broken steps of a staircase. Some- 
times the road winds along dizzy precipices, without parapet 
to guard him from the gulfs below, and then will plunge 
down steep and dark and dangerous declivities. Sometimes 
it struggles through rugged barrancos, or ravines, worn by 
winter torrents, the obscure path of the conti-abaiidista ; 
while, ever and anon, the ominous cross, the monument of 
robbery and murder, erected on a mound of stones at some 
lonely part of the road, admonishes the traveller that he is 
among the haunts of banditti, perhaps at that very moment 
under the eye of some lurking bandolero. Sometimes, in 
winding through the narrow valleys, he is startled by a hoarse 
bellowing, and beholds above him on some green fold of the 
mountain a herd of fierce Andalusian bulls, destined for the 
combat of the arena. I have felt, if I may so express it, an 
agreeable horror in thus contemplating, near at hand, these 
terrific animals, clothed with tremendous strength, and rang- 
ing their native pastures in untamed wildness, strangers 
almost to the face of man : they know no one but the solitary 

[8] 



THE JOURNEY 

herdsman who aj"ten<is '^apoA , and even he at times 

dares not venture to approach them. The low bellowing of 
these bulls, and their menacing aspect as they look down 
from their rocky height, give additional wildness to the 
savage scenery, 

I have been betrayed unconsciously into a longer disquisi- 
tion than I intended on the general features of Spanish 
travelling ; but there is a romance about all the recollections 
of the Peninsula dear to the imagination. 

As our proposed route to Granada lay through mountainous 
regions, where the roads are little better than mule-paths, 
and said to be frequently beset by robbers, we took due 
travelling precautions. Forwarding the most valuable part of 
our luggage a day or two in advance by the arrieros, we 
retained merely clothing and necessaries for the journey and 
money for the expenses of the road ; with a little surplus 
of hard dollars by way of robber p7irse, to satisfy the gentle- 
men of the road should we be assailed. Unlucky is the too 
wary traveller who, having grudged this precaution, falls into 
their clutches empty-handed ; they are apt to give him a 
sound rib-roasting for cheating them out of their dues. 
" Caballcros like them cannot afford to scour the roads and 
risk the gallows for nothing." 

A couple of stout steeds were provided for our own mount- 
ing, and a third for our scanty luggage and the conveyance 
of a sturdy Biscayan lad, about twenty years of age, who was 
to be our guide, our groom, our valet, and at all times our 
guard. For the latter office he was provided with a formida- 
ble trabnco or carbine, with which he promised to defend us 
against rateros or solitary footpads ; but as to powerful bands, 
like that of the "' Sons of Ecija," he confessed they were 

[9] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

quite beyond his prowess. He made much vainglorious boast 
about his weapon at the outset of the journey ; though, to 
the discredit of his generalship, it was suffered to hang un- 
loaded behind his saddle. 

According to our stipulations, the man from whom we 
hired the horses was to be at the expense of their feed and 
stabling on the journey, as well as of the maintenance of 
our Biscayan squire, who of course was provided with funds 
for the purpose ; we took care, however, to give the latter a 
private hint, that, though we made a close bargain with his 
master, it was all in his favor, as, if he proved a good man 
and true, both he and the horses should live at our cost, and 
the money provided for their maintenance remain in his 
pocket. This unexpected largess, with the occasional pres- 
ent of a cigar, won his heart completely. He was, in truth, 
a faithful, cheery, kind-hearted creature, as full of saws and 
proverbs as that miracle of squires, the renowned Sancho 
himself, whose name, by the by, we bestowed upon him, and, 
like a true Spaniard, though treated by us with companion- 
able familiarity, he never for a moment, in his utmost hilarity, 
overstepped the bounds of respectful decorum. 

Such were our minor preparations for the journey, but 
above all we laid in an ample stock of good humor, and a 
genuine disposition to be pleased ; determining to travel in 
true contrabandista style ; taking things as we found them, 
rough or smooth, and mingling with all classes and conditions 
in a kind of vagabond companionship. It is the true way to 
travel in Spain. With such disposition and determination, 
what a country is it for a traveller, where the most miserable 
inn is as full of adventure as an enchanted castle, and every 
meal is in itself an achievement ! Let others repine at the 

[lo] 



THE JOURNEY 

lack of turnpike roads and sumptuous hotels, and all the 
elaborate comforts of a country cultivated and civilized into 
tameness and commonplace ; but give me the rude mountain 
scramble ; the roving, hap-hazard, wayfaring ; the half wild 
yet frank and hospitable manners, which impart such a true 
game-flavor to dear old romantic Spain ! 

Thus equipped and attended, we cantered out of "< Fair 
Seville city " at half-past six in the morning of a bright May 
day, in company with a lady and gentleman of our acquaint- 
ance, who rode a few miles with us, in the Spanish mode of 
taking leave. Our route lay through old Alcala de Guadaira 
(Alcala on the river Aira), the benefactress of Seville, that 
supplies it with bread and water. Here live the bakers who 
furnish Seville with that delicious bread for which it is re- 
nowned ; here are fabricated those roscas well known by the 
well-merited appellation of pan de Dios (bread of God) ; with 
which, by the way, we ordered our man, Sancho, to stock his 
alforjas for the journey. Well has this beneficent little city 
been denominated the " Oven of Seville " ; well has it been 
called Alcala de los Panaderos (Alcala of the Bakers), for a 
great part of its inhabitants are of that handicraft, and the 
highway hence to Seville is constantly traversed by lines of 
mules and donkeys laden with great panniers of loaves 
and 7'oscas. 

I have said Alcala supplies Seville with water. Here are 
great tanks or reservoirs, of Roman and Moorish construc- 
tion, whence water is conveyed to Seville by noble aque- 
ducts. The springs of Alcala are almost as much vaunted 
as its ovens ; and to the lightness, sweetness, and purity 
of its water is attributed in some measure the delicacy of 
its bread. 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Here we halted for a time, at the ruins of the old Moorish 
castle, a favorite resort for picnic parties from Seville, where 
we had passed many a pleasant hour. The walls are of great 
extent, pierced with loopholes ; enclosing a huge square tower 
or keep, with the remains of masmoras, or subterranean grana- 
ries. The Guadaira winds its stream round the hill, at the 
foot of these ruins, whimpering among reeds, rushes, and 
pond-lilies, and overhung with rhododendron, eglantine, yel- 
low myrtle, and a profusion of wild flowers and aromatic 
shrubs ; while along its banks are groves of oranges, citrons, 
and pomegranates, among which we heard the early note of 
the nightingale. 

A picturesque bridge was thrown across the little river, at 
one end of which was the ancient Moorish mill of the castle, 
defended by a tower of yellow stone ; a fisherman's net hung 
against the wall to dry, and hard by in the river was his boat ; 
a group of peasant women in bright-colored dresses, crossing 
the arched bridge, were reflected in the placid stream. Alto- 
gether it was an admirable scene for a landscape-painter. 

The old Moorish mills, so often found on secluded streams, 
are characteristic objects in Spanish landscape, and suggestive 
of the perilous times of old. They are of stone, and often in 
the form of towers, with loopholes and battlements, capable 
of defence in those warlike days when the country on both 
sides of the border was subject to sudden inroad and hasty 
ravage, and v/hen men had to labor with their weapons at 
hand, and some place of temporary refuge. 

Our next halting-place was at Gandul, where were the 
remains of another Moorish castle, with its ruined tower, a 
nestling-place for storks, and commanding a view over a vast 
campina, or fertile plain, with the mountains of Ronda in 

[13] 



THE JOURNEY 

the distance. These castles were strongholds to protect the 
plains from the talas or forays to which they were subject, 
when the fields of corn would be laid waste, the flocks and 
herds swept from the vast pastures, and, together with 
captive peasantry, hurried off in long cavalgadas across the 
borders. 

At Gandul we found a tolerable posada ; the good folks 
could not tell us what time of day it was, the clock only struck 
once in the day, two hours after noon ; until that time it was 
guess-work. We guessed it was full time to eat ; so, alight- 
ing, we ordered a repast. While that was in preparation, we 
visited the palace, once the residence of the Marquis of Gan- 
dul. All was gone to decay ; there were but two or three 
rooms habitable, and very poorly furnished. Yet here were 
the remains of grandeur : a terrace, where fair dames and 
gentle cavaliers may once have walked ; a fish pond and 
ruined garden, with grape-vines and date-bearing palm trees. 
Here we were joined by a fat curate, who gathered a bouquet 
of roses, and presented it, very gallantly, to the lady who 
accompanied us. 

Below the palace was the mill, with orange trees and aloes 
in front, and a pretty stream of pure water. We took a seat 
in the shade, and the millers, all leaving their work, sat down 
and smoked with us, for the Andalusians are always ready 
for a gossip. They were waiting for the regular visit of the 
barber, who came once a week to put all their chins in order. 
He arrived shortly afterwards : a lad of seventeen, mounted 
on a donkey, eager to display his new alforjas, or saddle- 
bags, just bought at a fair ; price one dollar, to be paid on 
St. John's day (in June), by which time he trusted to have 
mown beards enough to put him in funds. 

[13] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

By the time the laconic clock of the castle had struck two 
we had finished our dinner. So, taking leave of our Seville 
friends, and leaving the millers still under the hands of the 
barber, we set off on our ride across the campina. It was 
one of those vast plains, common in Spain, where for miles 
and miles there is neither house nor tree. Unlucky the trav- 
eller who has to traverse it, exposed as we were to heavy and 
repeated showers of rain. There is no escape nor shelter. 
Our only protection was our Spanish cloaks, which nearly 
covered man and horse, but grew heavier every mile. By the 
time we had lived through one shower we would see another 
slowly but inevitably approaching ; fortunately, in the interval 
there would be an outbreak of bright, warm, Andalusian sun- 
shine, which would make our cloaks send up wreaths of steam, 
but which partially dried them before the next drenching. 

Shortly after sunset we arrived at Arahal, a little town 
among the hills. We found it in a bustle with a party of 
miquclcts, who were patrolling the country to ferret out rob- 
bers. The appearance of foreigners like ourselves was an 
unusual circumstance in an interior country town, and little 
Spanish towns of the kind are easily put in a state of gossip 
and wonderment by such an occurrence. Mine host, with 
two or three old wiseacre comrades in brown cloaks, studied 
our passports in a corner of the posada, while an Alguazil 
took notes by the dim light of a lamp. The passports were 
in foreign languages and perplexed them, but our Squire 
Sancho assisted them in their studies, and magnified our 
importance with the grandiloquence of a Spaniard, In the 
meantime the magnificent distribution of a few cigars had 
won the hearts of all around us ; in a little while the whole 
community seemed put in agitation to make us welcome. 

[14] 



THE JOURNEY 

The corrcgidor himself waited upon us, and a great rush- 
bottomed arm chair was ostentatiously bolstered into our room 
by our landlady, for the accommodation of that important 
personage. The commander of the patrol took supper with 
us : a lively, talking, laughing Andaluz, who had made a 
campaign in South America, and recounted his exploits in 
love and war with much pomp of phrase, vehemence of ges- 
ticulation, and mysterious rolling of the eye. He told us that 
he had a list of all the robbers in the country, and meant to 
ferret out every mother's son of them ; he offered us at the 
same time some of his soldiers as an escort. "One is enough 
to protect you, sefiors ; the robbers know me, and know my 
men ; the sight of one is enough to spread terror through a 
whole sierra." We thanked him for his offer, but assured him, 
in his own strain, that with the protection of our redoubtable 
Squire Sancho we were not afraid of all the ladrones of 
Andalusia. 

While we were supping with our drazvcansir friend, we 
heard the notes of a guitar and the click of castanets, and 
presently a chorus of voices singing a popular air. In fact, 
mine host had gathered together the amateur singers and 
musicians, and the rustic belles of the neighborhood, and, on 
going forth, the courtyard or patio of the inn presented a 
scene of true Spanish festivity. We took our seats with mine 
host and hostess and the commander of the patrol, under an 
archway opening into the court ; the guitar passed from hand 
to hand, but a jovial shoemaker was the (3rpheus of the place. 
He was a pleasant-looking fellow, with huge black whiskers ; 
his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He touched the 
guitar with masterly skill, and afterwards danced a fandango 
with a buxom Andalusian damsel, to the great delight of the 

[^5] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

spectators. But none of the females present could compare 
with mine host's pretty daughter, Pepita, who had slipped 
away and made her toilette for the occasion, and had covered 
her head with roses ; and who distinguished herself in a bolero 
with a handsome young dragoon. We ordered our host to 
let wine and refreshment circulate freely among the company, 
yet, though there was a motley assembly of soldiers, mule- 
teers, and villagers, no one exceeded the bounds of sober 
enjoyment. The scene was a study for a painter — the pic- 
turesque group of dancers, the troopers in their half-military 
dresses, the peasantry wrapped in their brown cloaks ; nor 
must I omit to mention the old meagre Alguazil, in a short 
black cloak, who took no notice of anything going on, but 
sat in a corner diligently writing by the dim light of a huge 
copper lamp, that might have figured in the days of Don 
Quixote. 

The following morning was bright and balmy, as a May 
morning ought to be, according to the poets. Leaving Arahal 
at seven o'clock, with all \k\Q. posada at the door to cheer us 
off, we pursued our way through a fertile country, covered 
with grain and beautifully verdant ; but which in summer, 
when the harvest is over and the fields parched and brown, 
must be monotonous and lonely ; for, as in our ride of yester- 
day, there were neither houses nor people to be seen. The 
latter all congregate in villages and strongholds among the 
hills, as if these fertile plains were still subject to the ravages 
of the Moor. 

At noon we came to where there was a group of trees, 
beside a brook in a rich meadow. Here we alighted to make 
our mid-day meal. It was really a luxurious spot, among wild 
flowers and aromatic herbs, with birds singing around us. 

[i6] 




THE WINE GATE — ALHAM BRA 



THE ALHAMBRA 

« 

Knowing the scanty larders of Spanish inns and the house- 
less tracts we might have to traverse, we had taken care to 
have the alforjas of our squire well stocked with cold pro- 
visions, and his bota, or leathern bottle, which might hold a 
gallon, filled to the neck with choice Valdepenas wine. As 
we depended more upon these for our well-being than even 
his trabuco, we exhorted him to be more attentive in keeping 
them well charged ; and I must do him the justice to say that 
his namesake, the trencher-loving Sancho Panza, was never a 
more provident purveyor. Though the alforjas and the bota 
were frequently and vigorously assailed throughout the jour- 
ney, they had a wonderful power of repletion, our vigilant 
squire sacking everything that remained from our repasts at 
the inns to supply these junketings by the roadside, which 
were his delight. 

On the present occasion he spread quite a sumptuous 
variety of remnants on the greensward before us, graced with 
an excellent ham brought from Seville ; then, taking his seat 
at little distance, he solaced himself with what remained in 
the alforjas. A visit or two to the bota made him as merry 
and chirruping as a grasshopper filled with dew. On my com- 
paring his contents of the alforjas to Sancho's skimming of 
the flesh-pots at the wedding of Cammacho, I found he was 
well versed in the history of Don Quixote, but, like many of 
the common people of Spain, firmly believed it to be a true 
history. 

" All that happened a long time ago, senor," said he, with 
an inquiring look. 

" A very long time," I replied. 

" I dare say more than a thousand years," — still looking 
dubiously. 

[i8] 



THE JOURNEY 

" I dare say not less." 

The squire was satisfied. Nothing pleased the simple- 
hearted varlet more than my comparing him to the renowned 
Sancho for devotion to the trencher ; and he called himself 
by no other name throughout the journey. 

Our repast being finished, we spread our cloaks on the 
greensward under the tree, and took a luxurious siesta, in the 
Spanish fashion. The clouding up of the weather, however, 
warned us to depart, and a harsh wind sprang up from the 
southeast. Towards five o'clock we arrived at Osuna, a town 
of fifteen thousand inhabitants, situated on the side of a hill, 
with a church and a ruined castle. The posada was outside 
of the walls ; it had a cheerless look. The evening being 
cold, the inhabitants were crowded round a brascro in a 
chimney-corner ; and the hostess was a dry old woman, who 
looked like a mummy. Every one eyed us askance as we 
entered, as Spaniards are apt to regard strangers ; a cheery, 
respectful salutation on our part, caballerobig them and touch- 
ing our sombreros, set Spanish pride at ease ; and when we 
took our seat among them, lit our cigars, and passed the 
cigar-box round among them, our victory was complete. I 
have never known a Spaniard, whatever his rank or condition, 
who would suffer himself to be outdone in courtesy ; and to 
the common Spaniard the present of a cigar {puro) is irre- 
sistible. Care, however, must be taken never to offer him a 
present with an air of superiority and condescension ; he is too 
much of a caballero to receive favors at the cost of his dignity. 

Leaving Osuna at an early hour the next morning, we 
entered the sierra, or range of mountains. The road wound 
through picturesque scenery, but lonely ; and a cross here 
and there by the roadside, the sign of a murder, showed that 

['9] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

we were now coming among the " robber haunts." This wild 
and intricate country, with its silent plains and valleys inter- 
sected by mountains, has ever been famous for banditti. It 
was here that Omar Ibn Hassan, a robber-chief among the 
Moslems, held ruthless sway in the ninth century, disputing 
dominion even with the caliphs of Cordova. This, too, was 
a part of the regions so often ravaged during the reign of 
Ferdinand and Isabella by Ali Atar, the old Moorish alcayde 
of Loxa, father-in-law of Boabdil, so that it was called Ali 
Atar's garden, and here "Jose Maria," famous in Spanish 
brigand story, had his favorite lurking-places. 

In the course of the day we passed through Fuente la 
Piedra, near a little salt lake of the same name, a beautiful 
sheet of water, reflecting like a mirror the distant mountains. 
We now came in sight of Antiquera, that old city of warlike 
reputation, lying in the lap of the great sierra which runs 
through Andalusia. A noble vcga spread out before it, a 
picture of mild fertility set in a frame of rocky mountains. 
Crossing a gentle river, we approached the city between 
hedges and gardens, in which nightingales were pouring 
forth their evening song. About nightfall we arrived at the 
gates. Everything in this venerable city has a decidedly Span- 
ish stamp. It lies too much out of the frequented track of 
foreign travel to have its old usages trampled out. Here I 
observed old men still wearing the montciv, or ancient hunt- 
ing-cap, once common throughout Spain ; while the young 
men wore the little round-crowned hat, with brim turned 
up all round, like a cup turned down in its saucer ; while 
the brim was set off with little black tufts like cockades. 
The women, too, were all in mantillas and basqiiinas. The 
fashions of Paris had not reached Antiquera. 

[20] 



T HE JOURNEY 

Pursuing our course through a spacious street, we put up 
at the posada of San Fernando. As Antiquera, though a 
considerable city, is, as I observed, somewhat out of the track 
of travel, I had anticipated bad quarters and poor fare at the 
inn. I was agreeably disappointed, therefore, by a supper 
table amply supplied, and what were still more acceptable, 
good clean rooms and comfortable beds. Our man Sancho 
felt himself as well off as his namesake when he had the run 
of the duke's kitchen, and let me know, as I retired for the 
night, that it had been a proud time for the alforjas. 

Early in the morning (May 4th) I strolled to the ruins of 
the old Moorish castle, which itself had been reared on the 
ruins of a Roman fortress. Here, taking my seat on the re- 
mains of a crumbling tower, I enjoyed a grand and varied 
landscape, beautiful in itself, and full of storied and romantic 
association ; for I was now in the very heart of the country 
famous for the chivalrous contests between Moor and Chris- 
tian. Below me, in its lap of hills, lay the old warrior city so 
often mentioned in chronicle and ballad. Out of yon gate 
and down yon hill paraded the band of Spanish cavaliers, of 
highest rank and bravest bearing, to make that foray during 
the war and conquest of Granada, which ended in the lament- 
able massacre among the mountains of Malaga, and laid all 
Andalusia in mourning. Beyond spread out the vcga, cov- 
ered with gardens and orchards and fields of grain and 
enamelled meadows, inferior only to the famous vega of 
Granada. To the right the Rock of the Lovers stretched 
like a cragged promontoiy into the plain, whence the daughter 
of the Moorish alcayde and her lover, when closely pursued, 
threw themselves in despair. 

The matin peal from cliurch and convent below me rang 

[21] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

sweetly in the morning air as I descended. The market-place 
was beginning to throng with the populace, who traffic in the 
abundant produce of the vega ; for this is the mart of an 
agricultural region. In the market-place were abundance of 
freshly-plucked roses for sale ; for not a dame or damsel of 
Andalusia thinks her gala dress complete without a rose 
shining like a gem among her raven tresses. 

On returning to the inn I found our man Sancho in high 
gossip with the landlord and two or three of his hangers-on. 
He had just been telling some marvellous story about Seville, 
which mine host seemed piqued to match with one equally 
marvellous about Antiquera. There was once a fountain, he 
said, in one of the public squares called El Fuente del Toro 
(the Fountain of the Bull), because the water gushed frqm 
the mouth of a bull's head, carved of stone. Underneath the 

head was inscribed : 

En frente del toro 
Se hallen tesoro. 

(In front of the bull there is treasure.) Many digged in front 
of the fountain, but lost their labor and found no money. At 
last one knowing fellow construed the motto in a different 
way. k is in the forehead {frente) of the bull that the treas- 
ure is to be found, said he to himself, and I am the man to 
find it. Accordingly he came, late at night, with a mallet, and 
knocked the head to pieces ; and what do you think he found } 

" Plenty of gold and diamonds ! " cried Sancho, eagerly. 

" He found nothing," rejoined mine host, dryly, "and he 
ruined the fountain." 

Here a great laugh was set up by the landlord's hangers- 
on ; who considered Sancho completely taken in by what I 
presume was one of mine host's standing jokes. 

[22] 



T H E J () If R N E Y 

Leaving Antiquera at eight o'clock, we had a dehghtful 
ride along the little river, and by gardens and orchards fra- 
grant with the odors of spring and vocal with the nightingale. 
Our road passed round the Rock of the Lovers (El Penon 
de los Enamorados), which rose in a precipice above us. In 
the course of the morning we passed through Archidona, sit- 
uated in the breast of a high hill, with a three-pointed moun- 
tain towering above it, and the ruins of a Moorish fortress. 
It was a great toil to ascend a steep stony street leading up 
into the city, although it bore the encouraging name of Calle 
Real del Llano (the Royal Street of the Plain), but it was 
still a greater toil to descend from this mountain city on the 
other side. 

At noon we halted in sight of Archidona, in a pleasant 
little meadow among hills covered with olive trees. Our 
cloaks were spread on the grass, under an elm by the side 
of a bubbling rivulet ; our horses were tethered where they 
might crop the herbage, and Sancho was told to produce his 
alforjas. He had been unusually silent this morning ever 
since the laugh raised at his expense, but now his counte- 
nance brightened, and he produced his aJforjas with an air 
of triumph. They contained the contributions of four days' 
journeying, but had been signally enriched by the foraging 
of the previous evening in the plenteous inn at Antiquera ; 
and this seemed to furnish him with a set-off to the banter 

of mine host. 

En frente del toro 

Se hallen tesoro 

would he exclaim, with a chuckling laugh, as he drew forth 
the heterogeneous contents one by one, in a series which 
seemed to have no end. P"irst came forth a shoulder of 

[23] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

roasted kid, very little the worse for wear ; then an entire 
partridge ; then a great morsel of salted codfish wrapped in 
paper ; then the residue of a ham ; then the half of a pullet, 
together with several rolls of bread, and a rabble rout of 
oranges, figs, raisins, and walnuts. His bota also had been 
recruited with some excellent wine of Malaga. At every 
fresh apparition from his larder, he would enjoy our ludicrous 
surprise, throwing himself back on the grass, shouting with 
laughter, and exclaiming, " Frcnte del toro ! f rente del toro ! 
Ah, seiiors, they thought Sancho a simpleton at Antiquera ; 
but Sancho knew where to find the tesoroT 

While we were diverting ourselves with his simple drollery, 
a solitary beggar approached, who had almost the look of a 
pilgrim. He had a venerable gray beard, and was evidently 
very old, supporting himself on a staff, yet age had not 
bowed him down ; he was tall and erect, and had the wreck 
of a fine form. He wore a round Andalusian hat, a sheep- 
skin jacket, and leathern breeches, gaiters, and sandals. His 
dress, though old and patched, was decent, his demeanor 
manly, and he addressed us with the grave courtesy that is 
to be remarked in the lowest Spaniard. We were in a favor- 
able mood for such a visitor ; and in a freak of capricious 
charity gave him some silver, a loaf of fine wheaten bread, 
and a goblet of our choice wine of Malaga. He received 
them thankfully, but without any grovelling tribute of grati- 
tude. Tasting the wine, he held it up to the light, with a 
slight beam of surprise in his eye ; then quaffing it off at a 
draught, "' It is many years," said he, " since I have tasted 
such wine. It is a cordial to an old man's heart." Then, 
looking at the beautiful wheaten loaf, '' bejidito sea tal pan!'' 
"' blessed be such bread ! " So saying, he put it in his wallet, 

[^4] 



THE JOURNEY 

We urged him to cat it on the spot. " No, senors," rephed 
he, '" the wine I had either to drink or leave ; but the bread 
I may take home to share with my family," 

Our man Sancho sought our eye, and reading permission 
there, gave the old man some of the ample fragments of our 
repast, on condition, however, that he should sit down and 
make a meal. 

He accordingly took his seat at some little distance from 
us, and began to eat slowly, and with a sobriety and decorum 
that would have become a hidalgo. There was altogether a 
measured manner and a quiet self-possession about the old 
man, that made me think that he had seen better days : his 
language, too, though simple, had occasionally something 
picturesque and almost poetical in the phraseology. I set 
him down for some broken-down cavalier. I was mistaken ; 
it was nothing but the innate courtesy of a Spaniard, and the 
poetical turn of thought and language often to be found in 
the lowest classes of this clear-witted people. For fifty years, 
he told us, he had been a shepherd, but now he was out of 
employ and destitute. "' When I was a young man," said he, 
" nothing could harm or trouble me ; I was always well, 
always gay ; but now I am seventy-nine years of age, and a 
beggar, and my heart begins to fail me." 

Still he was not a regular mendicant : it was not until 
recently that want had driven him to this degradation ; and 
he gave a touching picture of the struggle between hunger 
and pride, when abject destitution first came upon him. He 
was returning from Malaga without money ; he had not 
tasted food for some time, and was crossing one of the great 
plains of Spain, where there were but few habitations. 
When almost dead with hunger, he applied at the door of 

[^5] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

a venta or country inn. '' Perdon tisted por Dios hermano ! " 
(Excuse us, brother, for God's sake !) was the reply — the 
usual mode in Spain of refusing a beggar. " I turned away," 
said he, " with shame greater than my hunger, for my heart 
was yet too proud. I came to a river with high banks, and 
deep, rapid current, and felt tempted to throw myself in. 
What should such an old, worthless, wretched man as I live 
for ? But when I was on the brink of the current, I turned 
away. I travelled on until I saw a country-seat at a little dis- 
tance from the road, and entered the outer gate of the court- 
yard. The door was shut, but there were two young senoras 
at a window. I approached and begged; — ' Perdon listed 
por Dios hermano ! ' — and the window closed. I crept out 
of the courtyard, but hunger overcame me, and my heart 
gave way : I thought my hour at hand, so I laid myself down 
at the gate, and covered my head to die. In a little while 
afterwards the master of the house came home : seeing me 
lying at his gate, he uncovered my head, had pity on my 
gray hairs, took me into his house, and gave me food." 

The old man was on his way to his native place, Archidona, 
which was in full view on its steep and rugged mountain. 
He pointed to the ruins of its castle. As his heart warmed 
with wine, he went on to tell us a story of the buried treasure 
left under the castle by the Moorish king. His own house was 
next to the foundations of the castle. The curate and notary 
dreamed three times of the treasure, and went to work at the 
place pointed out in their dreams. His own son-in-law heard 
the sound of their pickaxes and spades at night. What they 
found, nobody knows ; they became suddenly rich, but kept 
their own secret. Thus the old man had once been next door 
to fortune, but was doomed never to get under the same roof. 

[26] 



THE JOURNEY 

I have remarked that the stories of treasure buried by the 
Moors, so popular throughout Spain, are most current among 
the poorest people. Kind nature consoles with shadows for 
the lack of substantial. The thirsty man dreams of fountains 
and running streams ; the hungry man of banquets ; and the 
poor man of heaps of hidden gold — nothing certainly is 
more opulent than the imagination of a beggar. 

Our afternoon's ride took us through a steep and rugged 
defile of the mountains, called Puerte del Rey (the Pass of 
the King) ; being one of the great passes into the territories 
of Granada, and the one by which King Ferdinand conducted 
his army. Towards sunset the road, winding round a hill, 
brought us in sight of the famous little frontier city of Loxa, 
which repulsed Ferdinand from its walls. Its Arabic name 
implies guardian, and such it was to the vega of Granada, 
being one of its advanced guards. It was the stronghold of 
that fiery veteran, old Ali Atar, father-in-law of Boabdil ; and 
here it was that the latter collected his troops, and sallied forth 
on that disastrous foray which ended in the death of the old 
alcayde and his own captivity. From its commanding posi- 
tion at the gate, as it were, of this mountain-pass, Loxa has 
not unaptly been termed the key of Granada. It is wildly 
picturesque, built along the face of an arid mountain. The 
ruins of a Moorish alcazar or citadel crown a rocky mound 
which rises out of the centre of the town. The river Xenil 
washes its base, winding among rocks, and groves, and 
gardens, and meadows, and crossed by a Moorish bridge. 
Above the city all is savage and sterile, below is the richest 
vegetation and the freshest verdure. A similar contrast is pre- 
sented by the river : above the bridge it is placid and grassy, 
reflecting groves and gardens ; below, it is rapid, noisy, and 

[^7] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

tumultuous. The Sierra Nevada, the royal mountains of 
Granada, crowned with perpetual snow, form the distant 
boundary to this varied landscape, one of the most charac- 
teristic of romantic Spain. 

Alighting at the entrance of the city, we gave our horses 
to Sancho to lead them to the inn, while we strolled about to 
enjoy the singular beauty of the environs. As we crossed 
the bridge to a fine alamcda, or public walk, the bells tolled 
the hour of orison. At the sound the wayfarers, whether on 
business or pleasure, paused, took off their hats, crossed them- 
selves, and repeated their evening prayer — a pious custom 
still rigidly observed in retired parts of Spain. Altogether, 
it was a solemn and beautiful evening scene, and we wandered 
on as the evening gradually closed, and the new moon began 
to glitter between the high elms of the alameda. We were 
roused from this quiet state of enjoyment by the voice of our 
trusty squire hailing us from a distance. He came up to us, 
out of breath. "Ah, senorcs," cried he, "' el pobre SancJio no 
es nada sin Don Quixote T (Ah, sefiors, poor Sancho is 
nothing without Don Quixote.) He had been alarmed at our 
not coming to the inn ; Loxa was such a wild mountain place, 
full of coiitrabandistas, enchanters, and infiernos ; he did not 
well know what might have happened, and set out to seek 
us, inquiring after us of every person he met, until he traced 
us across the bridge, and, to his great joy, caught sight of us 
strolling in the alameda. 

The inn to which he conducted us was called the Corona, 
or Crown, and we found it quite in keeping with the charac- 
ter of the place, the inhabitants of which seem still to retain 
the bold, fiery spirit of the olden time. The hostess was a 
young and handsome Andalusian widow. Her step was firm 

[28] 



Bfffl} 



^!^^n. '^^^^-^4;^}^%^{i^^,^.''"- 



.Jf.. 




'■-UaTI 



'M^ 



-■< V ,-i^. 



THE ALHAMBRA AND THE SIERRA NEVADA 



THE ALHAMBRA 

and elastic ; her dark eye was full of fire ; and the coquetry 
of her air, and varied ornaments of her person, showed that 
she was accustomed to be admired. 

She was well matched by a brother, nearly about her own 
age ; they were perfect models of the Andalusian niajo and 
maja. He was tall, vigorous, and well formed, with a clear 
olive complexion, a dark beaming eye, and curling chestnut 
whiskers that met under his chin. He was gallantly dressed 
in a short green velvet jacket, fitted to his shape, profusely 
decorated with silver buttons, with a white handkerchief in 
each pocket. He had breeches of the same, with rows of 
buttons from the hips to the knees ; a pink silk handkerchief 
round his neck, gathered through a ring, on the bosom of a 
neatly-plaited shirt; a sash round the waist to match ; bottinas, 
or spatterdashes, of the finest russet leather, elegantly worked, 
and open at the calf to show his stocking ; and russet shoes, 
setting off a well-shaped foot. 

As he was standing at the door, a horseman rode up and 
entered into low and earnest conversation with him. He was 
dressed in a similar style, and almost with equal finery ; a 
man about thirty, square-built, with strong Roman features, 
handsome, though slightly pitted with the small-pox ; with 
a free, bold, and somewhat daring air. His powerful black 
horse was decorated with tassels and fanciful trappings, and 
a couple of broad-mouthed blunderbusses hung behind the 
saddle. He had the air of one of those contrabandistas I 
have seen in the mountains of Ronda, and evidently had a 
good understanding with the brother of mine hostess ; nay, 
if I mistake not, he was a favored admirer of the widow. In 
fact, the whole inn and its inmates had something of a cou- 
trabandista aspect, and a blunderbuss stood in a corner 

[30] 



THE JOURNEY 

beside the guitar. The horseman I have mentioned passed 
his evening in the posada, and sang several bold mountain 
romances with great spirit. As we were at supper, two poor 
Asturians put in, in distress, begging food and a night's lodg- 
ing. They had been waylaid by robbers as they came from 
a fair among the mountains, robbed of a horse which carried 
all their stock in trade, stripped of their money and most of 
their apparel, beaten for having offered resistance, and left 
almost naked in the road. My companion, with a prompt 
generosity natural to him, ordered them a supper and a bed, 
and gave them a sum of money to help them forward towards 
their home. 

As the evening advanced, the dramatis perso?ice thickened. 
A large man, about sixty years of age, of powerful frame, 
came strolling in, to gossip with mine hostess. He was 
dressed in the ordinary Andalusian costume, but had a huge 
sabre tucked under his arm ; wore large moustaches, and had 
something of a lofty swaggering air. Every one seemed to 
regard him with great deference. 

Our man Sancho whispered to us that he was Don Ven- 
tura Rodriguez, the hero and champion of Loxa, famous for 
his prowess and the strength of his arm. In the time of the 
French invasion he surprised six troopers who were asleep ; 
he first secured their horses, then attacked them with his 
sabre, killed some, and took the rest prisoners. For this ex- 
ploit the king allows him a peseta (the fifth of a ditro, or 
dollar) per day, and has dignified him with the title of Don. 

I was amused to behold his swelling language and de- 
meanor. He was evidently a thorough Andalusian, boastful 
as brave. His sabre was always in his hand or under his 
arm. He carries it always about with him as a child does 

[3x] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

its doll, and says, " When I draw it, the earth trembles " 
{tiembla la tierrd). 

I sat until a late hour listening to the varied themes of this 
motley group, who mingled together with the unreserve of a 
Spanish posada. We had contTabaiidista songs, stories of 
robbers, guerrilla exploits, and Moorish legends. The last 
were from our handsome landlady, who gave a poetical account 
of the infiernos, or infernal regions of Loxa, — dark caverns, 
in which subterranean streams and waterfalls make a myste- 
rious sound. The common people say that there are money- 
coiners shut up there from the time of the Moors, and that 
the Moorish kings kept their treasures in those caverns. 

I retired to bed with my imagination excited by all that I 
had seen and heard in this old warrior city. Scarce had I 
fallen asleep when I was aroused by a horrid din and uproar, 
that might have confounded the hero of La Mancha himself, 
whose experience of Spanish inns was a continual uproar. It 
seemed for a moment as if the Moors were once more break- 
ing into the town, or the infiernos of which mine hostess 
talked had broken loose. I sallied forth, half dressed, to 
reconnoitre. It was nothing more nor less than a charivari 
to celebrate the nuptials of an old man with a buxom damsel. 
Wishing him joy, I returned to my more quiet bed, and slept 
soundly until morning. 

While dressing, I amused myself in reconnoitring the pop- 
ulace from my window. There were groups of fine-looking 
young men in the trim fanciful Andalusian costume, with 
brown cloaks, thrown about them in true Spanish style, which 
cannot be imitated, and little round majo hats stuck on with 
a peculiar knowing air. They had the same galliard look 
which I have remarked among the dandy mountaineers of 

[32] 



THE JOURNEY 

Ronda. Indeed, all this part of Andalusia abounds with such 
game-looking characters. They loiter about the towns and 
villages, seem to have plenty of time and plenty of money, 
" horse to ride and weapon to wear." — Great gossips, great 
smokers, apt at touching the guitar, singing couplets to their 
niaja belles, and famous dancers of the bolero. Throughout 
all Spain the men, however poor, have a gentlemanlike abun- 
dance of leisure, seeming to consider it the attribute of a true 
cavalicro never to be in a hurry ; but the Andalusians are 
gay as well as leisurely, and have none of the squalid accom- 
paniments of idleness. The adventurous contraband trade 
which prevails throughout these mountain regions, and along 
the maritime borders of Andalusia, is doubtless at the bottom 
of this galliard character. 

In contrast to the costume of these groups was that of two 
long-legged Valencians conducting a donkey, laden with arti- 
cles of merchandise, their musket slung crosswise over his 
back, ready for action. They wore round jackets {Jalecos), 
wide linen bragas or drawers scarce reaching to their knees 
and looking like kilts, red fajas or sashes swathed tightly 
round their waists, sandals of espartal or bass weed, colored 
kerchiefs round their heads somewhat in the style of turbans, 
but leaving the top of the head uncovered ; in short, their 
whole appearance having much of the traditional Moorish 
stamp. 

On leaving Loxa we were joined by a cavalier, well 
mounted and well armed, and followed on foot by an csco- 
petero or musketeer. He saluted us courteously, and soon let 
us into his quality. He was chief of the customs, or rather, 
I should suppose, chief of an armed company whose business 
it is to patrol the roads and look out for coiitrabandistas. 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The escopetero was one of his guards. In the course of our 
morning's ride I drew from him some particulars concerning 
the smugglers, who have risen to be a kind of mongrel chiv- 
alry in Spain, They come into Andalusia, he said, from vari- 
ous parts, but especially from La Mancha ; sometimes to 
receive goods, to be smuggled on an appointed night across 
the line at the plaza or strand of Gibraltar ; sometimes to 
meet a vessel, which is to hover on a given night off a certain 
part of the coast. They keep together and travel in the night. 
In the daytime they lie quiet in barrancos, gullies of the 
mountains, or lonely farm-houses, where they are generally 
well received, as they make the family liberal presents of 
their smuggled wares. Indeed, much of the finery and trin- 
kets worn by the wives and daughters of the mountain hamlets 
and farm-houses are presents from the gay and open-handed 
contrabandistas . 

Arrived at the part of the coast where a vessel is to meet 
them, they look out at night from some rocky point or head- 
land. If they descry a sail near the shore they make a con- 
certed signal ; sometimes it consists in suddenly displaying a 
lantern three times from beneath the folds of the cloak. If 
the signal is answered, they descend to the shore and prepare 
for quick work. The vessel runs close in ; all her boats are 
busy landing the smuggled goods, made up into snug pack- 
ages for transportation on horseback. These are hastily thrown 
on the beach, as hastily gathered up and packed on the 
horses, and then the contrabandistas clatter off to the moun- 
tains. They travel by the roughest, wildest, and most solitary 
roads, where it is almost fruitless to pursue them. The 
custom-house guards do not attempt it : they take a different 
course. When they hear of one of these bands returning full 

[34] 



THE JOURNEY 

freighted through the mountains, they go out in force, some- 
times twelve infantry and eight horsemen, and take their 
station where the mountain defile opens into the plain. The 
infantry, who lie in ambush some distance within the defile, 
suffer the band to pass, then rise and fire upon them. The 
contrabandistas dash forward, but are met in front by the 
horsemen. A wild skirmish ensues. The contrabandistas, 
if hard pressed, become desperate. Some dismount, use 
their horses as breastworks, and fire over their backs ; others 
cut the cords, let the packs fall off to delay the enemy, and 
endeavor to escape with their steeds. Some get off in this 
way with the loss of their packages ; some are taken, horses, 
packages, and all ; others abandon everything, and make 
their escape by scrambling up the mountains. " And then," 
cried Sancho, who had been listening with a greedy ear, 
"j-^ haccn ladrones legitimos,'' — "and then they become 
legitimate robbers." 

I could not help laughing at Sancho's idea of a legitimate 
calling of the kind ; but the chief of customs told me it was 
really the case that the smugglers, when thus reduced to 
extremity, thought they had a kind of right to take the road, 
and lay travellers under contribution, until they had collected 
funds enough to mount and equip themselves in contraban- 
dista style. 

Towards noon our wayfaring companion took leave of us 
and turned up a steep defile, followed by his escopetero ; and 
shortly afterwards we emerged from the mountains, and en- 
tered upon the far-famed vega of Granada. 

Our last mid-day's repast was taken under a grove of olive 
trees on the border of a rivulet. We were in a classical neigh- 
borhood ; for not far off were the groves and orchards of the 

[35] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Soto de Roma. This, according to fabulous tradition, was a re- 
treat founded by Count Julian to console his daughter Florinda. 
It was a rural resort of the Moorish kings of Granada; and has 
in modern times been granted to the Duke of Wellington. 

Our worthy squire made a half melancholy face as he drew 
forth, for the last time, the contents of his alforjas, lament- 
ing that our expedition was drawing to a close, for, with such 
cavaliers, he said, he could travel to the world's end. Our 
repast, however, was a gay one ; made under such delightful 
auspices. The day was without a cloud. The heat of the sun 
was tempered by cool breezes from the mountains. Before 
us extended the glorious Vega. In the distance was romantic 
Granada surmounted by the ruddy towers of the Alhambra, 
while far above it the snowy summits of the Sierra Nevada 
shone like silver. 

Our repast finished, we spread our cloaks and took our last 
siesta al fresco, lulled by the humming of bees among the 
flowers and the notes of doves among the olive trees. When 
the sultry hours were passed we resumed our journey. After 
a time we overtook a pursy little man, shaped not unlike a 
toad, and mounted on a mule. He fell into conversation with 
Sancho, and, finding we were strangers, undertook to guide 
us to a goodposada. He was an escribano (notary), he said, 
and knew the city as thoroughly as his own pocket. ''Ah, 
dios senoirs! what a city you are going to see. Such streets! 
such squares ! such palaces ! " — "' But the posada you talk of," 
said I, " are you sure it is a good one .'' " 

"Good! the best in Granada. Salones grandes — camas 
de hixo — colcJioncs de plurna (grand saloons — luxurious 
sleeping-rooms — beds of down). Ah, seiiores, you will fare 
like King Chicb in the Alhambra." 

"' And how will my horses fare .? " cried Sancho. 

[36] 



I'HE JOURNEY 

" Like King Chico's horses. Chocolate con lecJie y bollos 
para alniucrza'' (chocolate and milk with sugar cakes for 
breakfast), giving the squire a knowing" wink and a leer. 

After such satisfactory accounts, nothing more was to be 
desired on that head. So we rode quietly on, the squab little 
notary taking the lead, and turning to us every moment with 
some fresh exclamation about the grandeurs of Granada and 
the famous times we were to have at the posada. 

Thus escorted, we passed between hedges of aloes and 
Indian figs, and through that wilderness of gardens with 
which the Vega is embroidered, and arrived about sunset at 
the gates of the city. Our officious little conductor conveyed 
us up one street and down another, until he rode into the 
courtyard of an inn where he appeared to be perfectly at 
home. Summoning the landlord by his Christian name, he 
committed us to his care as two cavalleros dc niucJio valor, 
worthy of his best apartments and most sumptuous fare. We 
were instantly reminded of the patronizing stranger who intro- 
duced Gil Bias with such a flourish of trumpets to the host 
and hostess of the inn at Pennaflor, ordering trouts for his 
supper, and eating voraciously at his expense. " You know 
not what you possess," cried he to the innkeeper and his wife. 
" You have a treasure in your house. Behold in this young 
gentleman the eighth wonder of the world — nothing in this 
house is too good for Seiior Gil Bias of Santillane, who 
deserves to be entertained like a prince." 

Determined that the little notary should not eat trouts at our 
expense, like his prototype of Pennaflor, we forbore to ask 
him to supper ; nor had we reason to reproach ourselves with 
ingratitude, for we found before morning the little varlet, who 
was no doubt a good friend of the landlord, had decoyed us 
into one of the shabbiest /^j'<rc/<7j' in Granada. 

[37] 



X:* ,.„. 



. .^T*. '^^-}J^ 




PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA 



"^O THE traveller imbued with a feeling for the his- 
torical and poetical, so inseparably intertwined in the 
annals of romantic Spain, the Alhambra is as much 
an object of devotion as is the Caaba to all true Moslems. 
How many legends and traditions, true and fabulous, — how 
many songs and ballads, Arabian and Spanish, of love and 
war and chivalry, are associated with this Oriental pile ! It 
was the royal abode of the Moorish kings, where, surrounded 
with the splendors and refinements of Asiatic luxury, they 
held dominion over what they vaunted as a terrestrial paradise, 
and made their last stand for empire in Spain. The royal 
palace forms but a part of a fortress, the walls of which, 
studded with towers, stretch irregularly round the whole crest 
of a hill, a spur of the Sierra Nevada or Snowy Mountains, 
and overlook the city ; externally it is a rude congregation of 

[39] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

towers and battlements, with no regularity of plan nor grace 
of architecture, and giving little promise of the grace and 
beauty which prevail within. 

In the time of the Moors the fortress was capable of con- 
taining within its outward precincts an army of forty thousand 
men, and served occasionally as a stronghold of the sovereigns 
against their rebellious subjects. After the kingdom had 
passed into the hands of the Christians, the Alhambra con- 
tinued to be a royal demesne, and was occasionally inhabited 
by the Castilian monarchs. The emperor Charles V com- 
menced a sumptuous palace within its walls, but was deterred 
from completing it by repeated shocks of earthquakes. The 
last royal residents were Philip V and his beautiful queen, 
Elizabetta of Parma, early in the eighteenth century. Great 
preparations were made for their reception. The palace and 
gardens were placed in a state of repair, and a new suite of 
apartments erected, and decorated by artists brought from 
Italy. The sojourn of the sovereigns was transient, and after 
their departure the palace once more became desolate. Still 
the place was maintained with some military state. The 
governor held it immediately from the crown, its jurisdiction 
extended down into the suburbs of the city, and was inde- 
pendent of the captain-general of Granada. A considerable 
garrison was kept up ; the governor had his apartments in 
the front of the old Moorish palace, and never descended 
into Granada without some military parade. The fortress, in 
fact, was a little town of itself, having several streets of 
houses within its walls, together with a Franciscan convent 
and a parochial church. 

The desertion of the court, however, was a fatal blow to 
the Alhambra. Its beautiful halls became desolate, and some 

[40] 







(VCffi/^ntf i/7\rtf)fc TfZAC/t 



GRANADA FROM THE GENKRALIFE 



THE ALHAMBRA 

of them fell to ruin ; the gardens were destroyed, and the 
fountains ceased to play. By degrees the dwellings became 
filled with a loose and lawless population: contrabandistas, 
who availed themselves of its independent jurisdiction to carry 
on a wide and daring course of smuggling, and thieves and 
rogues of all sorts, who made this their place of refuge 
whence they might depredate upon Granada and its vicinity. 
The strong arm of government at length interfered ; the 
whole community was thoroughly sifted ; none were suffered 
to remain but such as were of honest character, and had 
legitimate right to a residence ; the greater part of the houses 
were demolished and a mere hamlet left, with the parochial 
church and the convent. During the recent troubles in 
Spain, when Granada was in the hands of the French, the 
Alhambra was garrisoned by their troops, and the palace was 
occasionally inhabited by the French commander. With that 
enlightened taste which has ever distinguished the French 
nation in their conquests, this monument of Moorish elegance 
and grandeur was rescued from the absolute ruin and desola- 
tion that were overwhelming it. The roofs were repaired, 
the saloons and galleries protected from the weather, the 
gardens cultivated, the watercourses restored, the fountains 
once more made to throw up their sparkling showers ; and 
Spain may thank her invaders for having preserved to her the 
most beautiful and interesting of her historical monuments. 

On the departure of the French they blew up several 
towers of the outer wall, and left the fortifications scarcely 
tenable. Since that time the military importance of the 
post is at an end. The garrison is a handful of invalid 
soldiers, whose principal duty is to guard some of the outer 
towers, which serve occasionally as a prison of state ; and the 

[42] 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

governor, abandoning the lofty hill of the Alhambra, resides 
in the centre of Granada, for the more convenient despatch 
of his official duties. 

Our first object, of course, on the morning after our arrival, 
was a visit to this time-honored edifice ; it has been so often, 
however, and so minutely described by travellers, that I shall 
not undertake to give a comprehensive and elaborate account 
of it, but merely occasional sketches of parts, with the 
incidents and associations connected with them. 

Leaving our posada, and traversing the renowned square 
of the Vivarrambla, once the scene of Moorish jousts and 
tournaments, now a crowded market-place, we proceeded 
along the Zacati'n, the main street of what, in the time of the 
Moors, was the Great Bazaar, and where small shops and 
narrow alleys still retain the Oriental character. Crossing an 
open place in front of the palace of the captain-general, we 
ascended a confined and winding street, the name of which 
reminded us of the chivalric days of Granada. It is called 
the Calle, or street of the Gomeres, from a Moorish family 
famous in chronicle and song. This street led up to the 
Puerta de las Granadas, a massive gateway of Grecian archi- 
tecture, built by Charles V, forming the entrance to the 
domains of the Alhambra. 

At the gate were two or three ragged superannuated sol- 
diers, dozing on a stone bench, the successors of the Zegris 
and the Abencerrages ; while a tall, meagre varlet, whose 
rusty-brown cloak was evidently intended to conceal the 
ragged state of his nether garments, was lounging in the 
sunshine and gossiping with an ancient sentinel on duty. 
He joined us as we entered the gate, and offered his services 
to show us the fortress. 

[43] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

I have a traveller's dislike to officious ciceroni, and did not 
altogether like the garb of the applicant. 

" You are well acquainted with the place, I presume ? " 

" Ninguno mas; pncs, scTior, soy Jiijo de la Alhambra.'' 
— (Nobody better ; in fact, sir, I am a son of the Alhambra !) 

The common Spaniards have certainly a most poetic way 
of expressing themselves. " A son of the Alhambra ! " the 
appellation caught me at once ; the very tattered garb of my 
new acquaintance assumed a dignity in my eyes. It was 
emblematic of the fortunes of the place, and befitted the 
progeny of a ruin. 

I put some further questions to him, and found that his 
title was legitimate. His family had lived in the fortress from 
generation to generation ever since the time of the Conquest. 
His name was Mateo Ximenes. " Then, perhaps," said I, 
" you may be a descendant from the great Cardinal Ximenes } " 
" Dios sabc ! God knows, seiior ! It may be so. We are the 
oldest family in the Alhambra, — CJiristiaiios viejos, old 
Christians. I know we belong to some great family or other, 
but I forget whom. My father knows all about it ; he has the 
coat-of-arms hanging up in his cottage, up in the fortress." 
There is not any Spaniard, however poor, but has some claim 
to high pedigree. The first title of this ragged worthy, how- 
ever, had completely captivated me, so I gladly accepted the 
services of the " son of the Alhambra." 

We now found ourselves in a deep, narrow ravine, filled 
with beautiful groves, with a steep avenue, and various foot- 
paths winding through it, bordered with stone seats, and 
ornamented with fountains. To our left we beheld the towers 
of the Alhambra beetling above us ; to our right, on the 
opposite side of the ravine, we were equally dominated by 

[44] 



PALACE OF THE A LH AM BRA 

rival towers on a rocky eminence. These, we were told, were 
the torrcs bcrmcjas, or vermilion towers, so called from their 
ruddy hue. No one knows their origin. They are of a date 
much anterior to the Alhambra : some suppose them to have 
been built by the Romans ; others, by some wandering colony 
of Phoenicians. Ascending the steep and shady avenue, we 
arrived at the foot of a huge square Moorish tower, forming 
a kind of barbican, through which passed the main entrance 
to the fortress. Within the barbican was another group of 
veteran invalids, one mounting guard at the portal, while the 
rest, wrapped in their tattered cloaks, slept on the stone 
benches. This portal is called the Gate of Justice, from the 
tribunal held within its porch during the Moslem domination, 
for the immediate trial of petty causes — a custom common 
to the Oriental nations, and occasionally alluded to in the 
sacred Scriptures. " Judges and officers shalt thou make thee 
/// all thy ^trtcs, and they shall judge the people with just 
judgment." 

The great vestibule, or porch of the gate, is formed by an 
immense Arabian arch, of the horseshoe form, which springs 
to half the height of the tower. On the keystone of this arch 
is engraven a gigantic hand. Within the vestibule, on the 
keystone of the portal, is sculptured, in like manner, a gigantic 
key. Those who pretend to some knowledge of Mohammedan 
symbols affirm that the hand is the emblem of doctrine, the 
five fingers designating the five principal commandments of 
the creed of Islam, fasting, pilgrimage, almsgiving, ablution, 
and war against infidels. The key, say they, is the emblem 
of the faith or of power ; the key of Daoud, or David, trans- 
mitted to the prophet. " And the key of the house of David 
will I lay upon his shoulder ; so he shall open and none shall 

[45] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

shut, and he shall shut and none shall open." (Isaiah xxii, 22.) 
The key we are told was emblazoned on the standard of the 
Moslems in opposition to the Christian emblem of the cross, 
when they subdued Spain or Andalusia. It betokened the 
conquering power invested in the prophet. ""He that hath 
the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth ; and 
shutteth and no man openeth," (Rev, iii, 7.) 

A different explanation of these emblems, however, was 
given by the legitimate son of the Alhambra, and one more 
in unison with the notions of the common people, who attach 
something of mystery and magic to everything Moorish, and 
have all kinds of superstitions connected with this old Moslem 
fortress. According to Mateo, it was a tradition handed down 
from the oldest inhabitants, and which he had from his father 
and grandfather, that the hand and key were magical devices 
on which the fate of the Alhambra depended. The Moorish 
king who built it was a great magician, or, as some believed, 
had sold himself to the devil, and had laid the whole fortress 
under a magic spell. By this means it had remained standing 
for several years, in defiance of storms and earthquakes, while 
almost all other buildings of the Moors had fallen to ruin and 
disappeared. This spell, the tradition went on to say, would 
last until the hand on the outer arch should reach down and 
grasp the key, when the whole pile would tumble to pieces, 
and all the treasures buried beneath it by the Moors would 
be revealed. 

After passing through the barbican, we ascended a narrow 
lane, winding between walls, and came on an open esplanade 
within the fortress, called the Plaza de los Aljibes, or Place 
of the Cisterns, from great reservoirs which undermine it, 
cut in the living rock by the Moors to receive the water brought 

[46] 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

by conduits from the Darro, for the supply of the fortress. 
Here, also, is a well of immense depth, furnishing the purest 
and coldest of water, — another monument of the delicate 
taste of the Moors, who were indefatigable in their exertions 
to obtain that element in its crystal purity. 

In front of this esplanade is the splendid pile commenced 
by Charles V, and intended, it is said, to eclipse the residence 
of the Moorish kings. Much of the Oriental edifice intended 
for the winter season was demolished to make way for this 
massive pile. The grand entrance was blocked up, so that 
the present entrance to the Moorish palace is through a sim- 
ple and almost humble portal in a corner. With all the massive 
grandeur and architectural merit of the palace of Charles V, 
we regarded it as an arrogant intruder, and, passing by it with 
a feeling almost of scorn, rang at the Moslem portal. 

While waiting for admittance, our self-imposed cicerone, 
Mateo Ximenes, informed us that the royal palace was 
entrusted to the care of a worthy old maiden dame called 
Uoiia Antonia-Molina, but who, according to Spanish cus- 
tom, went by the more neighborly appellation of Tia Antonia 
(Aunt Antonia), who maintained the Moorish halls and 
gardens in order and showed them to strangers. While we 
were talking, the door was opened by a plump little black- 
eyed Andalusian damsel, whom Mateo addressed as Dolores, 
but who, from her bright looks and cheerful disposition, evi- 
dently merited a merrier name. Mateo informed me in a 
whisper that she was the niece of Tia Antonia, and I found 
she was the good fairy who was to conduct us through the 
enchanted palace. Under her guidance we crossed the thresh- 
old, and were at once transported, as if by magic wand, into 
other times and an Oriental realm, and were treading the 

[47] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

scenes of Arabian story. Nothing could be in greater con- 
trast than the unpromising exterior of the pile with the scene 
now before us. We found ourselves in a \2LSt patio, or court, 
one hundred and fifty feet in length, and upwards of eighty 
feet in breadth, paved with white marble, and decorated at 
each end with light Moorish peristyles, one of which sup- 
ported an elegant gallery of fretted architecture. Along the 
mouldings of the cornices and on various parts of the walls 
were escutcheons and ciphers, and cufic and Arabic charac- 
ters in high relief, repeating the pious mottoes of the Moslem 
monarchs, the builders of the Alhambra, or extolling their 
grandeur and munificence. Along the centre of the court 
extended an immense basin or tank {cstanqiie), a hundred 
and twenty-four feet in length, twenty-seven in breadth, and 
five in depth, receiving its water from two marble vases. 
Hence it is called the Court of the Alberca (from al bccrkah, 
the Arabic for a pond or tank). Great numbers of gold-fish 
were to be seen gleaming through the waters of the basin, 
and it was bordered by hedges of roses. 

Passing from the Court of the Alberca under a Moorish 
archway, we entered the renowned Court of Lions. No part 
of the edifice gives a more complete idea of its original beauty 
than this, for none has suffered so little from the ravages of 
time. In the centre stands the fountain famous in song an(;J 
story. The alabaster basins still shed their diamond drops ; 
the twelve lions which support them, and give the court its 
name, still cast forth crystal streams as in the days of Boabdil. 
The lions, however, are unworthy of their fame, being of mis- 
erable sculpture, the work probably of some Christian captive. 
The court is laid out in flower-beds, instead of its ancient and 
appropriate pavement of tiles or marble ; the alteration, an 

[48] 









limf M\ "X/ \lii I 










'k^n 



"^■^ * *. 



THE COURT OF LIONS 



THE ALHAMBRA 

instance of bad taste, was made by the French when in pos- 
session of Granada. Round the four sides of the court are 
Hght Arabian arcades of open filigree work, supported by 
slender pillars of white marble, which it is supposed were 
originally gilded. The architecture, like that in most parts 
of the interior of the palace, is characterized by elegance 
rather than grandeur, bespeaking a delicate and graceful 
taste, and a disposition to indolent enjoyment. When one 
looks upon the fairy traces of the peristyles, and the appar- 
ently fragile fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe 
that so much has survived the wear and tear of centuries, 
the shocks of earthquakes, the violence of war, and the quiet, 
though no less baneful, pilferings of the tasteful traveller : 
it is almost sufficient to excuse the popular tradition that 
the whole is protected by a magic charm. 

On one side of the court a rich portal opens into the Hall 
of the Abencerrages : so called from the gallant cavaliers of 
that illustrious line who were here perfidiously massacred. 
There are some who doubt the whole story, but our humble 
cicerone Mateo pointed out the very wicket of the portal 
through which they were introduced one by one into the 
Court of Lions, and the white marble fountain in the centre 
of the hall beside which they were beheaded. He showed us 
also certain broad ruddy stains on the pavement, traces of 
their blood, which, according to popular belief, can never 
be effaced. 

Finding we listened to him apparently with easy faith, he 
added, that there was often heard at night, in the Court of 
Lions, a low confused sound, resembling the murmuring of 
a multitude, and now and then a faint tinkling, like the dis- 
tant clank of chains. These sounds were made by the spirits 

[50] 



PALACE OF THE AL HAM BRA 

of the murdered Abencerrages ; who nightly haunt the scene 
of their suffering and invoke the vengeance of Heaven on 
their destroyer. 

The sounds in question had no doubt been produced, as I 
had afterwards an opportunity of ascertaining, by the bubbhng 
currents and tinkling falls of water conducted under the pave- 
ment through pipes and channels to supply the fountains ; 
but I was too considerate to intimate such an idea to the 
humble chronicler of the Alhambra. 

Encouraged by my easy credulity, Mateo gave me the follow- 
ing as an undoubted fact, which he had from his grandfather : 

There was once an invalid soldier, who had charge of the 
Alhambra to show it to strangers ; as he was one evening, 
about twilight, passing through the Court of Lions, he heard 
footsteps on the Hall of the Abencerrages ; supposing some 
strangers to be lingering there, he advanced to attend upon 
them, when to his astonishment he beheld four Moors richly 
dressed, with gilded cuirasses and cimeters, and poniards glit- 
tering with precious stones. They were walking to and fro, 
with solemn pace ; but paused and beckoned to him. The 
old soldier, however, took to flight, and could never after- 
wards be prevailed upon to enter the Alhambra. Thus it is 
that men sometimes turn their backs upon fortune ; for it is 
the firm opinion of Mateo, that the Moors intended to reveal 
the place where their treasures lay buried. A successor to the 
invalid soldier was more knowing ; he came to the Alhambra 
poor ; but at the end of a year went off to Malaga, bought 
houses, set up a carriage, and still lives there, one of the 
richest as well as oldest men of the place ; all which, Mateo 
sagely surmised, was in consequence of his finding out the 
golden secret of these phantom Moors. 

[5x] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

I now perceived I had made an invaluable acquaintance in 
this son of the Alhambra, one who knew all the apocryphal 
history of the place, and firmly believed in it, and whose 
memory was stuffed with a kind of knowledge for which I 
have a lurking fancy, but which is too apt to be considered 
rubbish by less indulgent philosophers. I determined to 
cultivate the acquaintance of this learned Theban, 

Immediately opposite the Hall of the Abencerrages, a por- 
tal, richly adorned, leads into a hall of less tragical associations. 
It is light and lofty, exquisitely graceful in its architecture, 
paved with white marble, and bears the suggestive name of 
the Hall of the Two Sisters. 

On each side of this hall are recesses or alcoves for otto- 
mans and couches, on which the voluptuous lords of the 
Alhambra indulged in that dreamy repose so dear to the 
Orientalists. A cupola or lantern admits a tempered light 
from above and a free circulation of air ; while on one side 
is heard the refreshing sound of waters from the Fountain 
of the Lions, and on the other side the soft plash from the 
basin in the garden of Lindaraxa. 

An abundant supply of water, brought from the mountains 
by old Moorish aqueducts, circulates throughout the palace, 
supplying its baths and fish-pools, sparkling in jets within its 
halls or murmuring in channels along the marble pavements. 
When it has paid its tribute to the royal pile, and visited its 
gardens and parterres, it flows down the long avenue leading 
to the city, tinkling in rills, gushing in fountains, and main- 
taining a perpetual verdure in those groves that embower 
and beautify the whole hill of the Alhambra. 

Those only who have sojourned in the ardent climates of 
the South can appreciate the delights of an abode combining 

[53] 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

the breezy coolness of the mountain with the freshness and 
verdure of the valley. While the city below pants with the 
noontide heat, and the parched vega trembles to the eye, the 
delicate airs from the Sierra Nevada play through these lofty 
halls, bringing with them the sweetness of the surrounding 
■gardens. Everything invites to that indolent repose, the 
bliss of southern climes ; and while the half-shut eye looks 
out from shaded balconies upon the glittering landscape, the 
ear is lulled by the rustling of groves and the murmur of 
running streams. 

I forbear for the present, however, to describe the other 
delightful apartments of the palace. My object is merely to 
give the reader a general introduction into an abode where, 
if so disposed, he may linger and loiter with me day by day 
until we gradually become familiar with all its localities. 



\S?> 



t% 




«C'/?/>f/i/v irrifu^e /9{Aif 



IMPORTANT NEGOTIATIONS. — THE AUTHOR 
SUCCEEDS TO THE THRONE OF BOABDIL 



V 11 ^HE day was nearly spent before we could tear ourself 
from this region of poetry and romance to descend to 
the city and return to the forlorn realities of a Spanish 
posada. In a visit of ceremony to the Governor of the Al- 
hambra, to whom we had brought letters, we dwelt with en- 
thusiasm on the scenes we had witnessed, and could not but 
express surprise that he should reside in the city when he 
had such a paradise at his command. He pleaded the incon- 
venience of a residence in the palace from its situation on 
the crest of a hill, distant from the seat of business and the 
resorts of social intercourse. It did very well for monarchs, 
who often had need of castle walls to defend them from their 
own subjects. " But, sefiors," added he, smiling, " if you 
think a residence there so desirable, my apartments in the 
Alhambra are at your service." 

[54] 



IMPORTANT N E C; O T I A T I O N S 

It is a common and almost indispensable point of polite- 
ness in a Spaniard, to tell you his house is yours. '' Esta casa 
es sieniprc a la dtsposicion dc Vin'' — "' This house is always 
at the command of your Grace." In fact, anything of his 
which you admire, is immediately offered to you. It is equally 
a mark of good breeding in you not to accept it ; so we merely 
bowed our acknowledgments of the courtesy of the Governor 
in offering us a royal palace. We were mistaken, however. 
The Governor was in earnest. " You will find a rambling set 
of empty, unfurnished rooms," said he; "but Tia Antonia, 
who has charge of the palace, may be able to put them in 
some kind of order, and to take care of you while you are 
there. If you can make any arrangement with her for your 
accommodation, and are content with scanty fare in a royal 
abode, the palace of King Chico is at your service." 

We took the Governor at his word, and hastened up the 
steep Calle de los Gomeres, and through the Great Gate of 
Justice, to negotiate with Dame Antonia, — doubting at times 
if this were not a dream, and fearing at times that the sage 
Duena of the fortress might be slow to capitulate. We knew 
we had one friend at least in the garrison who would be in 
our favor, the bright-eyed little Dolores, whose good graces 
we had propitiated on our first visit, and who hailed our 
return to the palace with her brightest looks. 

All, however, went smoothly. The good Tia Antonia had 
a little furniture to put in the rooms, but it was of the 
commonest kind. We assured her we could bivouac on the 
floor. She could supply our table, but only in her own sim- 
ple way ; — we wanted nothing better. Her niece, Dolores, 
would wait upon us ; and at the word we threw up our hats 
and the bargain was complete. 

[55] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The very next day we took up our abode in the palace, and 
never did sovereigns share a divided throne with more per- 
fect harmony. Several days passed by like a dream, when my 
worthy associate, being summoned to Madrid on diplomatic 
duties, was compelled to abdicate, leaving me sole monarch 
of this shadowy realm. For myself, being in a manner a hap- 
hazard loiterer about the world, and prone to linger in its 
pleasant places, here have I been suffering day by day to steal 
away unheeded, spellbound, for aught I know, in this old en- 
chanted pile. Having always a companionable feeling for my 
reader, and being prone to live with him on confidential terms, 
I shall make it a point to communicate to him my reveries 
and researches during this state of delicious thraldom. If 
they have the power of imparting to his imagination any 
of the witching charms of the place, he will not repine at 
lingering with me for a season in the legendary halls of 
the Alhambra. 

And first it is proper to give him some idea of my domestic 
arrangements ; they are rather of a simple kind for the occu- 
pant of a regal palace ; but I trust they will be less liable to 
disastrous reverses than those of my royal predecessors. 

My quarters are at one end of the Governor's apartment, 
a suite of empty chambers, in front of the palace, looking out 
upon the great esplanade called la Plaza de los Aljibes (the 
Place of the Cisterns) ; the apartment is modern, but the end 
opposite to my sleeping-room communicates with a cluster of 
little chambers, partly Moorish, partly Spanish, allotted to the 
cJidtelainc Dona Antonia and her family. In consideration 
of keeping the palace in order, the good dame is allowed 
all the perquisites received from visitors, and all the produce 
of the gardens, excepting that she is expected to pay an 

[S6] 







''"1 !lffl|[|■^■■ttllli|li■ 




1^ ^'V^.T, ;■' 







,CfoA/f*.f* >/i\etNO- jfiii^CM. 



THE LION FOUNTAIN-COURT OF LIONS 



THE ALHAMBRA 

occasional tribute of fruits and flowers to the Governor. Her 
family consists of a nephew and niece, the children of two 
different brothers. The nephew, Manuel Molina, is a young 
man of sterling worth and Spanish gravity. He had served 
in the army, both in Spain and the West Indies, but is now 
studying medicine in the hope of one day or other becoming 
physician to the fortress, a post worth at least one hundred 
and forty dollars a year. The niece is the plump little black- 
eyed Dolores already mentioned, and who, it is said, will one 
day inherit all her aunt's possessions, consisting of certain 
petty tenements in the fortress, in a somewhat ruinous con- 
dition it is true, but which, I am privately assured by Mateo 
Ximenes, yield a revenue of nearly one hundred and fifty 
dollars ; so that she is quite an heiress in the eyes of the 
ragged son of the Alhambra. I am also informed by the same 
observant and authentic personage, that a quiet courtship is 
going on between the discreet Manuel and his bright-eyed 
cousin, and that nothing is wanting to enable them to join 
their hands and expectations but his doctor's diploma, and a 
dispensation from the Pope on account of their consanguinity. 
The good dame Antonia fulfils faithfully her contract in 
regard to my board and lodging, and as I am easily pleased I 
find my fare excellent ; while the merry-hearted little Dolores 
keeps my apartment in order, and officiates as handmaid at 
meal-times. I have also at my command a tall, stuttering, 
yellow-haired lad, named Pepe, who works in the gardens, 
and would fain have acted as valet, but in this he was fore- 
stalled by Mateo Ximenes, the "son of the Alhambra." This 
alert and officious wight has managed, somehow or other, to 
stick by me ever since I first encountered him at the outer 
gate of the fortress, and to weave himself into all my plans, 

[58] 



IMPORTANT NEGOTIATIONS 

until he has fairly appointed and installed himself my valet, 
cicerone, guide, guard, and historiographic squire, and I have 
been obliged to improve the state of his wardrobe, that he 
may not disgrace his various functions ; so that he has cast 
his old brown mantle, as a snake does his skin, and now 
appears about the fortress with a smart Andalusian hat and 
jacket, to his infinite satisfaction, and the great astonishment 
of his comrades. The chief fault of honest Mateo is an over- 
anxiety to be useful. Conscious of having foisted himself into 
my employ, and that my simple and quiet habits render his 
situation a sinecure, he is at his wit's ends to devise modes 
of making himself important to my welfare. I am in a man- 
ner the victim of his ofiiciousness ; I cannot put my foot over 
the threshold of the palace, to stroll about the fortress, but 
he is at my elbow, to explain everything I see ; and if I ven- 
ture to ramble among the surrounding hills, he insists upon 
attending me as a guard, though I vehemently suspect he 
would be more apt to trust to the length of his legs than the 
strength of his arms, in case of attack. After all, however, 
the poor fellow is at times an amusing companion ; he is 
simple-minded and of infinite good humor, with the loquacity 
and gossip of a village barber, and knows all the small-talk 
of the place and its environs ; but what he chiefly values him- 
self on is his stock of local information, having the most 
marvellous stories to relate of every tower, and vault, and 
gateway of the fortress, in all of which he places the most 
implicit faith. 

Most of these he has derived, according to his own account, 
from his grandfather, a little legendary tailor, who lived to 
the age of nearly a hundred years, during which he made but 
two migrations beyond the precincts of the fortress. His shop, 

[59] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

for the greater part of a century, was the resort of a knot of 
venerable gossips, where they would pass half the night talk- 
ing about old times, and the wonderful events and hidden 
secrets of the place. The whole living, moving, thinking, 
and acting of this historical little tailor had thus been bounded 
by the walls of the Alhambra ; within them he had been born, 
within them he lived, breathed, and had his being ; within 
them he died and was buried. Fortunately for posterity his tra- 
ditionary lore died not with him. The authentic Mateo, when 
an urchin, used to be an attentive listener to the narratives of 
his grandfather, and of the gossiping group assembled round 
the shopboard, and is thus possessed of a stock of valuable 
knowledge concerning the Alhambra, not to be found in books, 
and well worthy the attention of every curious traveller. 

Such are the personages that constitute my regal house- 
hold ; and I question whether any of the potentates, Moslem 
or Christian, who have preceded me in the palace, have been 
waited upon with greater fidelity, or enjoyed a serener sway. 
. When I rise in the morning, Pepe, the stuttering lad from 
the gardens, brings me a tribute of fresh-culled flowers, which 
are afterwards arranged in vases by the skilful hand of Dolores, 
who takes a feminine pride in the decoration of my chambers. 
My meals are made wherever caprice dictates ; sometimes in 
one of the Moorish halls, sometimes under the arcades of the 
Court of Lions, surrounded by flowers and fountains ; and 
when I walk out I am conducted by the assiduous Mateo to 
the most romantic retreats of the mountains, and delicious 
haunts of the adjacent valleys, not one of which but is the 
scene of some wonderful tale. 

Though fond of passing the greater part of my day alone, 
yet I occasionally repair in the evenings to the little domestic 

[60] 



IMPORTANT NEGOTIATIONS 

circle of Doiia Antonia. This is generally held in an old 
Moorish chamber, which serves the good dame for parlor, 
kitchen, and hall of audience, and which must have boasted 
of some splendor in the time of the Moors, if we may judge 
from the traces yet remaining ; but a rude fireplace has been 
made in modern times in one corner, the smoke from which 
has discolored the walls and almost obliterated the ancient 
arabesques. A window, with a balcony overhanging the 
valley of the Darro, lets in the cool evening breeze ; and 
here I take my frugal supper of fruit and milk, and mingle 
with the conversation of the family. There is a natural talent 
or mother-wit, as it is called, about the Spaniards, which 
renders them intellectual and agreeable companions, what- 
ever may be their condition in life, or however imperfect 
may have been their education ; add to this, they are never 
vulgar ; nature has endowed them with an inherent dignity 
of spirit. The good Tia Antonia is a woman of strong and 
intelligent, though uncultivated mind ; and the bright-eyed 
Dolores, though she has read but three or four books in the 
whole course of her life, has an engaging mixture of naivete 
and good sense, and often surprises me by the pungency of 
her artless sallies. Sometimes the nephew entertains us by 
reading some old comedy of Calderon or Lope de Vega, to 
which he is evidently prompted by a desire to improve as 
well as amuse his cousin Dolores ; though, to his great mor- 
tification, the little damsel generally falls asleep before the 
first act is completed. Sometimes Tia Antonia has a little 
levee of humble friends and dependants, the inhabitants of 
the adjacent hamlet, or the wives of the invalid soldiers. 
These look up to her with great deference, as the custodian 
of the palace, and pay their court to her by bringing the 

[6i] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

news of the place, or the rumors that may have straggled up 
from Granada. In listening to these evening gossipings I 
have picked up many curious facts illustrative of the manners 
of the people and the peculiarities of the neighborhood. 

These are simple details of simple pleasures ; it is the 
nature of the place alone that gives them interest and im- 
portance. I tread haunted ground, and am surrounded by 
romantic associations. From earliest boyhood, when, on the 
banks of the Hudson, I first pored over the pages of old 
Gines Perez de Hita's apocryphal but chivalresque history of 
the civil wars of Granada, and the feuds of its gallant cava- 
liers, the Zegris and Abencerrages, that city has ever been 
a subject of my waking dreams ; and often have I trod in 
fancy the romantic halls of the Alhambra. Behold for once 
a day-dream realized ; yet I can scarce credit my senses, or 
believe that I do indeed inhabit the palace of Boabdil, and 
look down from its balconies upon chivalric Granada. As I 
loiter through these Oriental chambers, and hear the mur- 
mur of fountains and the song of the nightingale ; as I in- 
hale the odor of the rose, and feel the influence ©f the balmy 
climate, I am almost tempted to fancy myself in the paradise 
of Mahomet, and that the plump little Dolores is one of the 
bright-eyed houries, destined to administer to the happiness 
of true believers. 



[62] 




INHABITANTS OF THE ALHAMBRA 



HAVE often observed that the more proudly a mansion 
has been tenanted in the day of its prosperity, the hum- 
bler are its inhabitants in the day of its decline, and that 
the palace of a king commonly ends in being the nestling- 
place of the beggar. 

The Alhambra is in a rapid state of similar transition. 
Whenever a tower falls to decay, it is seized upon by some 
tatterdemalion family, who become joint-tenants, with the 
bats and owls, of its gilded halls ; and hang their rags, those 
standards of poverty, out of its windows and loopholes. 

I have amused myself with remarking some of the motley 
characters that have thus usurped the ancient abode of royalty, 
and who seem as if placed here to give a farcical termination 
to the drama of human pride. One of these even bears the 
mockery of a regal title. It is a little old woman named Maria 

[63] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Antonia Sabonea, but who goes by the appellation of la Reina 
Coquina, or the Cockle-queen. She is small enough to be a 
fairy ; and a fairy she may be for aught I can find out, for 
no one seems to know her origin. Her habitation is in a kind 
of closet under the outer staircase of the palace, and she sits 
in the cool stone corridor, plying her needle and singing from 
morning till night, with a ready joke for every one that passes ; 
for though one of the poorest, she is one of the merriest little 
women breathing. Her great merit is a gift for story-telling, 
having, I verily believe, as many stories at her command as 
the inexhaustible Scheherazade of the Thousand and One 
Nights. Some of these I have heard her relate in the eve- 
ning tcrtidias of Dame Antonia, at which she is occasionally 
a humble attendant. 

That there must be some fairy gift about this mysterious 
little old woman, would appear from her extraordinary luck, 
since, notwithstanding her being very little, very ugly, and 
very poor, she has had, according to her own account, five 
husbands and a half, reckoning as a half one a young dra- 
goon, who died during courtship. A rival personage to this 
little fairy queen is a portly old fellow with a bottle-nose, who 
goes about in a rusty garb, with a cocked hat of oilskin and 
a red cockade. He is one of the legitimate sons of the Al- 
hambra, and has lived here all his life, filling various offices, 
such as deputy algnazil, sexton of the parochial church, and 
marker of a fives-court, established at the foot of one of the 
towers. He is as poor as a rat, but as proud as he is ragged, 
boasting of his descent from the illustrious house of Aguilar, 
from which sprang Gonzalvo of Cordova, the grand captain. 
Nay, he actually bears the name of Alonzo de Aguilar, so 
renowned in the history of the Conquest. It is a whimsical 

[64] 



INHABITANTS OF THE ALHAMBRA 

caprice of fortune to present, in the grotesque person of this 
tatterdemahon, a namesake and descendant of the proud 
Alonzo de Aguilar, the mirror of Andalusian chivalry, lead- 
ing an almost mendicant existence about this once haughty 
fortress, which his ancestor aided to reduce ; yet such might 
have been the lot of the descendants of Agamemnon and 
Achilles, had they lingered about the ruins of Troy ! 

Of this motley community, I find the family of my gos- 
siping squire, Mateo Ximenes, to form, from their numbers 
at least, a very important part. His boast of being a son of 
the Alhambra is not unfounded. His family has inhabited 
the fortress ever since the time of the Conquest, handing 
down an hereditary poverty from father to son ; not one of 
them having ever been known to be worth a viaravcdi. His 
father, by trade a ribbon-weaver, and who succeeded the his- 
torical tailor as the head of the family, is now near seventy 
years of age, and lives in a hovel of reeds and plaster, built 
by his own hands, just above the iron gate. The furniture 
consists of a crazy bed, a table, and two or three chairs ; a 
wooden chest, containing, besides his scanty clothing, the 
"archives of the family." These are nothing more nor less 
than the papers of various lawsuits sustained by different 
generations ; by which it would seem that, with all their 
apparent carelessness and good humor, they are a litigious 
brood. Most of the suits have been brought against gossip- 
ing neighbors for questioning the purity of their blood, and 
denying their being Cristianos viejos ; i.e. old Christians, 
without Jewish or Moorish taint. In fact, I doubt whether 
this jealousy about their blood has not kept them so poor in 
purse : spending all their earnings on escnbanos and algna- 
zils. The pride of the hovel is an escutcheon suspended 

[65] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

against the wall, in which are emblazoned quarterings of the 
arms of the Marquis of Caiesedo, and of various other noble 
houses, with which this poverty-stricken brood claim affinity. 

As to Mateo himself, who is now about thirty-five years of 
age, he has done his utmost to perpetuate his line and con- 
tinue the poverty of the family, having a wife and a numer- 
ous progeny, who inhabit an almost dismantled hovel in the 
hamlet. How they manage to subsist, He only who sees into 
all mysteries can tell ; the subsistence of a Spanish family of 
the kind is always a riddle to me ; yet they do subsist, and, 
what is more, appear to enjoy their existence. The wife takes 
her holiday stroll on the Paseo of Granada, with a child in her 
arms and half a dozen at her heels ; and the eldest daughter, 
now verging into womanhood, dresses her hair with flowers, 
and dances gayly to the castanets. 

There are two classes of people to whom life seems one 
long holiday, the very rich and the very poor : one, because 
they need do nothing ; the other, because they have nothing 
to do ; but there are none who understand the art of doing 
nothing and living upon nothing, better than the poor classes 
of Spain. Climate does one half, and temperament the rest. 
Give a Spaniard the shade in summer and the sun in winter, 
a little bread, garlic, oil, and garbanzos, an old brown cloak 
and a guitar, and let the world roll on as it pleases. Talk of 
poverty ! with him it has no disgrace. It sits upon him with 
a grandiose style, like his ragged cloak. He is a hidalgo, even 
when in rags. 

The " sons of the Alhambra " are an eminent illustration 
of this practical philosophy. As the Moors imagined that the 
celestial paradise hung over this favored spot, so I am inclined 
at times to fancy that a gleam of the golden age still lingers 

[66] 



INHABITANTS OF THE ALHAMBRA 

about this ragged community. They possess nothing, they 
do nothing, they care for nothing. Yet, though apparently 
idle all the week, they are as observant of all holy days and 
saints' days as the most laborious artisan. They attend all 
fetes and dancings in Granada and its vicinity, light bonfires 
on the hills on St. John's eve, and dance away the moonlight 
nights on the harvest-home of a small field within the precincts 
of the fortress, which yield a few bushels of wheat. 

Before concluding these remarks, I must mention one of 
the amusements of the place, which has particularly struck 
me. I had repeatedly observed a long lean fellow perched 
on the top of one of the towers, manoeuvring two or three 
fishing-rods, as though he were angling for the stars. I was 
for some time perplexed by the evolutions of this aerial fish- 
erman, and my perplexity increased on observing others em- 
ployed in like manner on different parts of the battlements 
and bastions ; it was not until I consulted Mateo Ximenes 
that I solved the mystery. 

It seems that the pure and airy situation of this fortress 
has rendered it, like the castle of Macbeth, a prolific breeding- 
place for swallows and martlets, who sport about its towers 
in myriads, with the holiday glee of urchins just let loose 
from school. To entrap these birds in their giddy circlings, 
with hooks baited with flies, is one of the favorite amuse- 
ments of the ragged " sons of the Alhambra," who, with the 
good-for-nothing ingenuity of arrant idlers, have thus invented 
the art of angling in the sky. 



[67] 




^ . 



•*^':-: \ 







THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS 



N ONE of my visits to the old Moorish chamber where 
the good Tia Antonia cooks her dinner and receives her 
company, I observed a mysterious door in one corner, 
leading apparently into the ancient part of the edifice. My 
curiosity being aroused, I opened it, and found myself in a 
narrow, blind corridor, groping along which I came to the 
head of a dark winding staircase, leading down an angle of 
the Tower of Comares. Down this staircase I descended 
darkling, guiding myself by the wall until I came to a small 
door at the bottom, throwing which open, I was suddenly 
dazzled by emerging into the brilliant antechamber of the 
Hall of Ambassadors ; with the fountain of the Court of the 
Alberca sparkling before me. The antechamber is separated 
from the court by an elegant gallery, supported by slender 

[68] 



THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS 

columns with spandrels of open work in the Morisco style. 
At each end of the antechamber are alcoves, and its ceiling 
is richly stuccoed and painted. Passing through a magnifi- 
cent portal, I found myself in the far-famed Hall of Ambas- 
sadors, the audience chamber of the Moslem monarchs. It 
is said to be thirty-seven feet square and sixty feet high ; 
occupies the whole interior of the Tower of Comares ; and 
still bears the traces of past magnificence. The walls are 
beautifully stuccoed and decorated with Morisco fanciful- 
ness ; the lofty ceiling was originally of the same favorite 
material, with the usual frostwork and pensile ornaments or 
stalactites ; which, with the embellishments of vivid color- 
ing and gilding, must have been gorgeous in the extreme. 
Unfortunately, it gave way during an earthquake, and brought 
down with it an immense arch which traversed the hall. 
It was replaced by the present vault or dome of larch or 
cedar, with intersecting ribs, the whole curiously wrought 
and richly colored ; still Oriental in its character, reminding 
one of " those ceilings of cedar and vermilion that we read 
of in the Prophets and the Arabian Nights." 

P'rom the great height of the vault above the windows, the 
upper part of the hall is almost lost in obscurity ; yet there is 
a magnificence as well as solemnity in the gloom, as through 
it we have gleams of rich gilding and the brilliant tints of the 
Moorish pencil. 

The royal throne was placed opposite the entrance in 
a recess, which still bears an inscription intimating that 
Vusef I (the monarch who completed the Alhambra) made 
this the throne of his empire. Everything in this noble hall 
seems to have been calculated to surround the throne with im- 
pressive dignity and splendor ; there was none of the elegant 

[69] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

voluptuousness which reigns in other parts of the palace. 
The tower is of massive strength, domineering over the whole 
edifice and overhanging the steep hillside. On three sides 
of the Hall of Ambassadors are windows cut through the 
immense thickness of the walls and commanding extensive 
prospects. The balcony of the central window especially 
looks down upon the verdant valley of the Darr©, with its 
walks, its groves, and gardens. To the left it enjoys a dis- 
tant prospect of the Vega ; while directly in front rises the 
rival height of the Albaici'n, with its medley of streets, and 
terraces, and gardens, and once crowned by a fortress that 
vied in power with the Alhambra. "Ill fated the man who 
lost all this ! " exclaimed Charles V, as he looked forth from 
this window upon the enchanting scenery it commands. 

The balcony of the window where this royal exclamation 
was made, has of late become one of my favorite resorts. I 
have just been seated there, enjoying the close of a long bril- 
liant day. The sun, as he sank behind the purple mountains 
of Alhama, sent a stream of effulgence up the valley of the 
Darro, that spread a melancholy pomp over the ruddy towers 
of the Alhambra ; while the Vega, covered with a slight sultry 
vapor that caught the setting ray, seemed spread out in the 
distance like a golden sea. Not a breath of air disturbed the 
stillness of the hour, and though the faint sound of music and 
merriment now and then rose from the gardens of the Darro, 
it but rendered more impressive the monumental silence of the 
pile which overshadowed me. It was one of those hours and 
scenes in which memory asserts an almost magical power ; and, 
like the evening sun beaming on these mouldering towers, 
sends back her retrospective rays to light up the glories of 
the past. 

[70] 






^,^'- 



I • I -'' ' ' ) 



J V 



I t • » 



AN 






k,A. : >^.;.\ . 



II 













.^K;,i.sim)fffmM:i 



• ■"i^^/vetf- j5^^*»: 



TOWER OF COMARES AND COURT OF MYRTLES 



THE ALHAMBRA 

As I sat watching the effect of the decHning dayhght upon 
this Moorish pile, I was led into a consideration of the light, 
elegant, and voluptuous character prevalent throughout its 
internal architecture, and to contrast it with the grand but 
gloomy solemnity of the Gothic edifices reared by the Spanish 
conquerors. The very architecture thus bespeaks the oppo- 
site and irreconcilable natures of the two warlike people who 
so long battled here for the mastery of the Peninsula. By 
degrees I fell into a course of musing upon the singular for- 
tunes of the Arabian or Morisco-Spaniards, whose whole exist- 
ence is as a tale that is told, and certainly forms one of the 
most anomalous yet splendid episodes in history. Potent 
and durable as was their dominion, we scarcely know how to 
call them. They were a nation without a legitimate country 
or name. A remote wave of the great Arabian inundation, cast 
upon the shores of P2urope, they seem to have all the impetus 
of the first rush of the torrent. Their career of conquest, from 
the rock of Gibraltar to the cliffs of the Pyrenees, was as rapid 
and brilliant as the Moslem victories of Syria and P-gypt. 
Nay, had they not been checked on the plains of Tours, all 
France, all Europe, might have been overrun with the same 
facility as the empires of the East, and the Crescent at this 
day have glittered on the fanes of Paris and London. 

Repelled within the limits of the Pyrenees, the mixed 
hordes of Asia and Africa, that formed this great irruption, 
gave up the Moslem principle of conquest, and sought to 
establish in Spain a peaceful and permanent dominion. As 
conquerors, their heroism was only equalled by their modera- 
tion ; and in both, for a time, they excelled the nations with 
whom they contended. Severed from their native homes, 
they loved the land given them as they supposed by Allah, 

[72J 



THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS 

and strove to embellish it with everything that could admin- 
ister to the happiness of man. Laying the foundations of 
their power in a system of wise and equitable laws, diligently 
cultivating the arts and sciences, and promoting agriculture, 
manufactures, and commerce, they gradually formed an em- 
pire unrivalled for its prosperity by any of the empires of 
Christendom ; and diligently drawing round them the graces 
and refinements which marked the Arabian empire of the 
East, at the time of its greatest civilization, they diffused the 
light of Oriental knowledge through the western regions of 
benighted Europe. 

The cities of Arabian Spain became the resort of Christian 
artisans, to instruct themselves in the useful arts. The univer- 
sities of Toledo, Cordova, Seville, and Granada were sought 
by the pale student from other lands to acquaint himself with 
the sciences of the Arabs and the treasured lore of antiquity ; 
the lovers of the gay science resorted to Cordova and Granada, 
to imbibe the poetry and music of the East ; and the steel-clad 
warriors of the North hastened thither to accomplish them- 
selves in the graceful exercises and courteous usages of chivalry. 

If the Moslem monuments in Spain, if the Mosque of Cor- 
dova, the Alcazar of Seville, and the Alhambra of Granada, 
still bear inscriptions fondly boasting of the power and per- 
manency of their dominion, can the boast be derided as arro- 
gant and vain ? Generation after generation, century after 
century, passed away, and still they maintained possession of 
the land. A period elapsed longer than that which has passed 
since England was subjugated by the Norman Conqueror, 
and the descendants of Musa and Taric might as little antici- 
pate being driven into exile across the same straits, traversed 
by their triumphant ancestors, as the descendants of Rollo 

[73] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

and William and their veteran peers, may dream of being 
driven back to the shores of Normandy. 

With all this, however, the Moslem empire in Spain was 
but a brilliant exotic, that took no permanent root in the soil 
it embellished. Severed from all their neighbors in the West 
by impassable barriers of faith and manners, and separated 
by seas and deserts from their kindred of the East, the 
Morisco-Spaniards were an isolated people. Their whole exist- 
ence was a prolonged, though gallant and chivalric, struggle 
for a foothold in a usurped land. 

They were the outposts and frontiers of Islamism. The Pen- 
insula was the great battle-ground where the Gothic conquerors 
of the North and the Moslem conquerors of the East met and 
strove for mastery; and the fiery courage of the Arab was at length 
subdued by the obstinate and persevering valor of the Goth. • 

Never was the annihilation of a people more complete than 
that of the Morisco-Spaniards. Where are they .? Ask the 
shores of Barbary and its desert places. The exiled remnant 
of their once powerful empire disappeared among the bar- 
barians of Africa, and ceased to be a nation. They have not 
even left a distinct name behind them, though for nearly eight 
centuries they were a distinct people. The home of their 
adoption, and of their occupation for ages, refuses to acknowl- 
edge them, except as invaders and usurpers. A few broken 
monuments are all that remain to bear witness to their power 
and dominion, as solitary rocks, left far in the interior, bear 
testimony to the extent of some vast inundation. Such is the 
Alhambra ; — a Moslem pile in the midst of a Christian land ; 
an Oriental palace amidst the Gothic edifices of the West ; an 
elegant memento of a brave, intelligent, and graceful people, 
who conquered, ruled, flourished, and passed away. 

[74] 




THE JESUITS' LIBRARY 



iINCE indulging in the foregoing reverie, my curiosity 
has been aroused to know something of the princes 
who left behind them this monument of Oriental taste 
and magnificence, — and whose names still appear among 
the inscriptions on its walls. To gratify this curiosity, I have 
descended from this region of fancy and fable, where every- 
thing is liable to take an imaginary tint, and have carried my 
researches among the dusty tomes of the old Jesuits' Library, 
in the University. This once boasted repository of erudition 
is now a mere shadow of its former self, having been stripped 
of its manuscripts and rarest works by the French, when 
masters of Granada ; still it contains, among many ponderous 
tomes of the Jesuit fathers, which the French were careful 
to leave behind, several curious tracts of Spanish literature ; 
and, above all, a number of those antiquated parchment-bound 
chronicles for which I have a particular veneration. 

In this old library I have passed many delightful hours of 
quiet, undisturbed literary foraging ; for the keys of the doors 
and bookcases were kindly intmsted to me, and I was left 

[75] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

alone, to rummage at my pleasure, — a rare indulgence in these 
sanctuaries of learning, which too often tantalize the thirsty 
student with the sight of sealed fountains of knowledge. 

In the course of these visits I gleaned a variety of facts 
concerning historical characters connected with the Alham- 
bra, some of which I here subjoin, trusting they may prove 
acceptable to the reader. 



7G 







-J^- 

-.•- >^^ 



jfwV. 



■y'M^i- 









'li^ 



m^ 




ALHAMAR, THE FOUNDER OF THE 
ALHAMBRA 

^HE Moors of Granada regarded the Alhambra as a 
miracle of art, and had a tradition that the king who 
- founded it dealt in magic, or at least in alchemy, by 
means whereof he procured the immense sums of gold ex- 
pended in its erection. A brief view of his reign will show 
the secret of his wealth. He is known in Arabian history as 
Muhamed Ibn-1-Ahmar ; but his name in general is written 
simply Alhamar, and was given to him, we are told, on account 
of his ruddy complexion. 

He was of the noble and opulent line of the Beni Nasar, 
or tribe of Nasar, and was born in Arjona, in the year of the 
Hegira 592 (a.d. 1195). At his birth the astrologers, we are 
told, cast his horoscope according to Oriental custom, and 
pronounced it highly auspicious; and a santon predicted for 

[77] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

him a glorious career. No expense was spared in fitting him 
for the high destinies prognosticated. Before he attained the 
full years of manhood, the famous battle of the Navas (or 
plains) of Tolosa shattered the Moorish empire, and even- 
tually severed the Moslems of Spain from the Moslems of 
Africa. Factions soon arose among the former, headed by 
warlike chiefs ambitious of grasping the sovereignty of the 
Peninsula. Alhamar became engaged in these wars ; he was 
the general and leader of the Beni Nasar, and, as such, he 
opposed and thwarted the ambition of Aben Hud, who had 
raised his standard among the warlike mountains of the 
Alpuxaras, and been proclaimed king of Murcia and Granada. 
Many conflicts took place between these warring chieftains ; 
Alhamar dispossessed his rival of several important places, 
and was proclaimed king of Jaen by his soldiery ; but he 
aspired to the sovereignty of the whole of Andalusia, for he 
was of a sanguine spirit and lofty ambition. His valor and 
generosity went hand in hand ; what he gained by the one 
he secured by the other ; and at the death of Aben Hud 
(a.d. 1238) he became sovereign of all the territories which 
owed allegiance to that powerful chief. He made his formal 
entry into Granada in the same year, amid the enthusiastic 
shouts of the multitude, who hailed him as the only one capa- 
ble of uniting the various factions which prevailed, and which 
threatened to lay the empire at the mercy of the Christian 
princes. 

Alhamar established his court in Granada ; he was the first 
of the illustrious line of Nasar that sat upon a throne. He 
took immediate measures to put his little kingdom in a pos- 
ture of defence against the assaults to be expected from his 
Christian neighbors, repairing and strengthening the frontier 

[78] 



A L H A M A R 

posts and fortifying the capital. Not content with the pro- 
visions of the Moslem law, by which every man is made a 
soldier, he raised a regular army to garrison his strongholds, 
allowing every soldier stationed on the frontier a portion of 
land for the support of himself, his horse, and his family, — 
thus interesting him in the defence of the soil in which he 
had a property. These wise precautions were justified by 
events. I'he Christians, profiting by the dismemberment of 
the Moslem power, were rapidly regaining their ancient ter- 
ritories. James the Conqueror had subjected all Valencia, 
and Ferdinand the Saint sat down in person before Jaen, 
the bulwark of Granada. Alhamar ventured to oppose him 
in open field, but met with a signal defeat, and retired dis- 
comfited to his capital. Jaen still held out, and kept the 
enemy at bay during an entire winter, but Ferdinand swore 
not to raise his camp until he had gained possession of the 
place. Alhamar found it impossible to throw reinforcements 
into the besieged city ; he saw that its fall must be followed 
by the investment of his capital, and was conscious of the 
insufficiency of his means to cope with the potent sovereign 
of Castile. Taking a sudden resolution, therefore, he repaired 
privately to the Christian camp, made his unexpected appear- 
ance in the presence of King Ferdinand, and frankly an- 
nounced himself as the king of Granada. " I come," said 
hd, " confiding in your good faith, to put myself under your 
protection. Take all I possess and receive me as your vassal " ; 
so saying, he knelt and kissed the king's hand in token of 
allegiance. 

Ferdinand was won by this instance of confiding faith, and 
determined not to be outdone in generosity. He raised his 
late enemy from the earth, embraced him as a friend, and, 

[79] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

refusing the wealth he offered, left him sovereign of his 
dominions, under the feudal tenure of a yearly tribute, attend- 
ance at the Cortes as one of the nobles of the empire, and 
service in war with a certain number of horsemen. He more- 
over conferred on him the honor of knighthood, and armed 
him with his own hands. 

It was not long after this that Alhamar was called upon 
for his military services, to aid King Ferdinand in his famous 
siege of Seville. The Moorish king sallied forth with five 
hundred chosen horsemen of Granada, than whom none in 
the world knew better how to manage the steed or wield the 
lance. It was a humiliating service, however, for they had 
to draw the sword against their brethren of the faith, 

Alhamar gained a melancholy distinction by his prowess 
in this renowned conquest, but more true honor by the human- 
ity which he prevailed upon Ferdinand to introduce into the 
usages of war. When in 1248 the famous city of Seville 
surrendered to the Castilian monarch, Alhamar returned sad 
and full of care to his dominions. He saw the gathering ills 
that menaced the Moslem cause ; and uttered an ejaculation 
often used by him in moments of anxiety and trouble, — 
'" How straitened and wretched would be our life, if our 
hope were not so spacious and extensive ! " " One angoste 
y viiserabile scria nuestra vida, siiio fiicra tan dilatada y 
espaciosa mtestra esperanza .■' " 

As he approached Granada on his return he beheld arches 
of triumph which had been erected in honor of his martial 
exploits. The people thronged forth to see him with im- 
patient joy, for his benignant rule had won all hearts. 
Wherever he passed he was hailed with acclamations as 
'^ El Ghalib y (the conqueror). Alhamar gave a melancholy 

[80] 



A L H A M A R 

shake of the head on hearing the appellation. " IVa Ic ghalib 
ilc Aldli ! " (there is no conqueror but God) exclaimed he. 
From that time forward this exclamation became his motto, 
and the motto of his descendants, and appears to this day 
emblazoned on his escutcheons in the halls of the Alhambra. 
Alhamar had purchased peace by submission to the Chris- 
tian yoke ; but he was conscious that, with elements so dis- 
cordant and motives for hostility so deep and ancient, it could 
not be permanent. Acting, therefore, upon the old maxim, 
"Arm thyself in peace and clothe thyself in summer," he 
improved the present interval of tranquillity by fortifying his 
dominions, replenishing his arsenals, and promoting those 
useful arts which give wealth and real power. He confided 
the command of his various cities to such as had distinguished 
themselves by valor and prudence, and who seemed most 
acceptable to the people. He organized a vigilant police, 
and established rigid rules for the administration of justice. 
The poor and the distressed always found ready admission 
to his presence, and he attended personally to their assistance 
and redress. He erected hospitals for the blind, the aged, 
and infirm, and all those incapable of labor, and visited them 
frequentl}' ; not on set days with pomp and form, so as to give 
time for everjlhing to be put in order, and every abuse con- 
cealed, but suddenly and unexpectedly, informing himself, 
by actual observation and close inquiry, of the treatment of 
the sick, and the conduct of those appointed to administer 
to their relief. He founded schools and colleges, which he 
visited in the same manner, inspecting personally the instruc- 
tion of the youth. He established butcheries and public ovens, 
that the people might be furnished with wholesome provisions 
at just and regular prices. He introduced abundant streams 

[8i] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

of water into the city, erecting baths and fountains, and con- 
structing aqueducts and canals to irrigate and fertilize the 
Vega. By these means prosperity and abundance prevailed 
in this beautiful city ; its gates were thronged with commerce, 
and its warehouses filled with luxuries and merchandise of 
every clime and country. 

He moreover gave premiums and privileges to the best 
artisans ; improved the breed of horses and other domestic 
animals ; encouraged husbandry ; and increased the natural 
fertility of the soil twofold by his protection, making the 
lovely valleys of his kingdom to bloom like gardens. He 
fostered also the growth and fabrication of silk, until the 
looms of Granada surpassed even those of Syria in the fine- 
ness and beauty of their productions. He moreover caused 
the mines of gold and silver and other metals, found in the 
mountainous regions of his dominions, to be diligently worked, 
and was the first king of Granada who struck money of gold 
and silver with his name, taking great care that the coins 
should be skilfully executed. 

It was towards the middle of the thirteenth century, and 
just after his return from the siege of Seville, that he com- 
menced the splendid palace of the Alhambra ; superintend- 
ing the building of it in person ; mingling frequently among 
the artists and workmen, and directing their labors. 

Though thus magnificent in his works and great in his 
enterprises, he was simple in his person and moderate in his 
enjoyments. His dress was not merely void of splendor, but 
so plain as not to distinguish him from his subjects. His 
wives were daughters of the principal nobles, and were 
treated by him as friends and rational companions. He 
passed much of his time in his gardens ; especially in those 

[82] 



ALHAMAR 

of the Alhambra, which he had stored with the rarest plants 
and the most beautiful and aromatic flowers. Here he de- 
lighted himself in reading histories, or in causing them to 
be read and related to him, and sometimes, in intervals of 
leisure, employed himself in the instruction of his three sons, 
for whom he had provided the most learned and virtuous 
masters. 

As he had frankly and voluntarily offered himself a tribu- 
tary vassal to Ferdinand, so he always remained loyal to his 
word, giving him repeated proofs of fidelity and attachment. 
When that renowned monarch died in Seville in 1254, 
Alhamar sent ambassadors to condole with his successor, 
Alonzo X, and with them a gallant train of a hundred Moor- 
ish cavaliers of distinguished rank, who were to attend round 
the royal bier during the funeral ceremonies, each bearing 
a lighted taper. This grand testimonial of respect was re- 
peated by the Moslem monarch during the remainder of his 
life on each anniversary of the death of King Ferdinand 
el Santo, when the hundred Moorish knights repaired from 
Granada to Seville, and took their stations with lighted tapers 
in the centre of the sumptuous cathedral round the cenotaph 
of the illustrious deceased. 

Alhamar retained his faculties and vigor to an advanced 
age. In his seventy-ninth year (a.u. 1272) he took the field 
on horseback, accompanied by the flower of his chivalry, to 
resist an invasion of his territories. As the army sallied forth 
from Granada, one of the principal adalidcs, or guides, who 
rode in the advance, accidentally broke his lance against the 
arch of the gate. The counsellors of the king, alarmed by 
this circumstance, which was considered an evil omen, en- 
treated him to return. Their supplications were in vain. 

[83] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The king persisted, and at noontide the omen, say the Moor- 
ish chroniclers, was fatally fulfilled. Alhamar was suddenly 
struck with illness, and had nearly fallen from his horse. He 
was placed on a litter and borne back towards Granada, but 
his illness increased to such a degree that they were obliged 
to pitch his tent in the Vega. His physicians were filled with 
consternation, not knowing what remedy to prescribe. In a 
few hours he died, vomiting blood and in violent convulsions. 
The Castilian prince, Don Philip, brother of Alonzo X, 
was by his side when he expired. His body was embalmed, 
enclosed in a silver coffin, and buried in the Alhambra in a 
sepulchre of precious marble, amidst the unfeigned lamenta- 
tions of his subjects, who bewailed him as a parent. 

I have said that he was the first of the illustrious line of 
Nasar that sat upon a throne, I may add that he was the 
founder of a brilliant kingdom which will ever be famous in 
history and romance as the last rallying-place of Moslem 
power and splendor in the Peninsula. Though his under- 
takings were vast, and his expenditures immense, yet his 
treasury was always full ; and this seeming contradiction 
gave rise to the story that he was versed in magic art, and 
possessed of the secret for transmuting baser metals into gold. 
Those who have attended to his domestic policy, as here set 
forth, will easily understand the natural magic and simple 
alchemy which made his ample treasury to overflow. 



[84] 




■ytfyt'^iAi/.' tfi^'ihi, ^k 






YUSEF ABUL HAGIG, THE FINISHER OF THE 
ALHAMBRA 



^^O THE foregoing particulars, concerning the Moslem 
princes who once reigned in these halls, I shall add a 
brief notice of the monarch who completed and em- 
bellished the Alhambra. Yusef Abul Hagig (or, as it is some- 
times written, Haxis) was another prince of the noble line of 
Nasar. He ascended the throne of Granada in the year of 
grace 1333, and is described by Moslem writers as having 
a noble presence, great bodily strength, and a fair complex- 
ion ; and the majesty of his countenance increased, say they, 
by suffering his beard to grow to a dignified length and dye- 
ing it black. His manners were gentle, affable, and urbane ; 
he carried the benignity of his nature into warfare, prohibit- 
ing all wanton cruelty, and enjoining mercy and protection 
towards women and children, the aged and infirm, and all 

[85] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

friars and other persons of holy and recluse life. But though 
he possessed the courage common to generous spirits, the 
bent of his genius was more for peace than war, and though 
repeatedly obliged by circumstances to take up arms, he was 
generally unfortunate. 

Among other ill-starred enterprises, he undertook a great 
campaign, in conjunction with the king of Morocco, against 
the kings of Castile and Portugal, but was defeated in the 
memorable battle of Salado, which had nearly proved a death- 
blow to the Moslem power in Spain. 

Yusef obtained a long truce after this defeat, and now his 
character shone forth in its true lustre. He had an excellent 
memory, and had stored his mind with science and erudition ; 
his taste was altogether elegant and refined, and he was ac- 
counted the best poet of his time. Devoting himself to the 
instruction of his people and the improvement of their morals 
and manners, he established schools in all the villages, with 
simple and uniform systems of education ; he obliged every 
hamlet of more than twelve houses to have a mosque, and 
purified the ceremonies of religion, and the festivals and popu- 
lar amusements, from various abuses and indecorums which 
had crept into them. He attended vigilantly to the police of 
the city, establishing nocturnal guards and patrols, and super- 
intending all municipal concerns. His attention was also 
directed towards finishing the great architectural works com- 
menced by his predecessors, and erecting others on his own 
plans. The Alhambra, which had been founded by the good 
Alhamar, was now completed. Yusef constructed the beauti- 
ful Gate of Justice, forming the grand entrance to the for- 
tress, which he finished in 1348. He likewise adorned many 
of the courts and halls of the palace, as may be seen by the 

[86], 



YIFSEF ABUL HAGIG 

inscriptions on the walls, in which his name repeatedly occurs. 
He built also the noble Alcazar or citadel of Malaga, now un- 
fortunately a mere mass of crumbling ruins, but which most 
probably exhibited in its interior similar elegance and magnifi- 
cence with the Alhambra, 

The genius of a sovereign stamps a character upon his 
time. The nobles of Granada, imitating the elegant and 
graceful taste of Yusef, soon filled the city of Granada with 
magnificent palaces ; the halls of which were paved with 
mosaic, the walls and ceilings wrought in fretwork, and deli- 
cately gilded and painted with azure, vermilion, and other 
brilliant colors, or minutely inlaid with cedar and other pre- 
cious woods ; specimens of which have survived, in all their 
lustre, the lapse of several centuries. Many of the houses 
had fountains, which threw up jets of water to refresh and 
cool the air. They had lofty towers also, of wood or stone, 
curiously carved and ornamented, and covered with plates of 
metal that glittered in the sun. Such was the refined and 
delicate taste in architecture that prevailed among this elegant 
people ; insomuch that, to use the beautiful simile of an 
Arabian writer, " Granada, in the days of Yusef, was as a 
silver vase filled with emeralds and jacinths." 

One anecdote will be sufficient to show the magnanimity 
of this generous prince. The long truce which had succeeded 
the battle of Salado was at an end, and every effort of Yusef 
to renew it was in vain. His deadly foe, Alfonzo XI of 
Castile, took the field with great force, and laid siege to Gib- 
raltar. Yusef reluctantly took up arms, and sent troops to the 
relief of the place. In the midst of his anxiety, he received 
tidings that his dreaded foe had fallen a victim to the plague. 
Instead of manifesting exultation on the occasion, Yusef 

[87] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

called to mind the great qualities of the deceased, and was 
touched with a noble sorrow. " Alas ! " cried "he, " the world 
has lost one of its most excellent princes ; a sovereign who 
knew how to honor merit, whether in friend or foe ! " 

The Spanish chroniclers themselves bear witness to this 
magnanimity. According to their accounts, the Moorish cava- 
liers partook of the sentiment of their king, and put on mourn- 
ing for the death of Alfonzo. Even those of Gibraltar, who 
had been so closely invested, when they knew that the hostile 
monarch lay dead in his camp, determined among themselves 
that no hostile movement should be made against the Chris- 
tians. The day on which the camp was broken up, and the 
army departed bearing the corpse of Alfonzo, the Moors 
issued in multitudes from Gibraltar, and stood mute and 
melancholy, watching the mournful pageant. The same rev- 
erence for the deceased was observed by all the Moorish com- 
manders on the . frontiers, who suffered the funeral train to 
pass in safety, bearing the corpse of the Christian sovereign 
from Gibraltar to Seville. 

Yusef did not long survive the enemy he had so generously 
deplored. In the year 1354, as he was one day praying in 
the royal mosque of the Alhambra, a maniac rushed suddenly 
from behind and plunged a dagger in his side. The cries of 
the king brought his guards and courtiers to his assistance. 
They found him weltering in his blood. He made some signs 
as if to speak, but his words were unintelligible. They bore 
him senseless to the royal apartments, where he expired al- 
most immediately. The murderer was cut to pieces, and his 
limbs burnt in public to gratify the fury of the populace. 

The body of the king was interred in a superb sepulchre 
of white marble ; a long epitaph, in letters of gold upon an 

[88] 



YUSEF ABITL HAGIG 

azure ground, recorded his virtues. " Here lies a king and 
martyr, of an illustrious line, gentle, learned, and virtuous ; 
renowned for the graces of his person and his manners ; 
whose clemency, piety, and benevolence were extolled through- 
out the kingdom of Granada. He was a great prince ; an 
illustrious captain ; a sharp sword of the Moslems ; a valiant 
standard-bearer among the most potent monarchs," etc. 

The mosque still exists which once resounded with the 
dying cries of Yusef, but the monument which recorded his 
virtues has long since disappeared. His name, however, 
remains inscribed among the delicate and graceful orna- 
ments of the Alhambra, and will be perpetuated in connec- 
tion with this renowned pile, which it was his pride and 
delight to beautify. 



[89] 




<"■-"••*•■■"*•»« r!iffiUS 






THE MYSTERIOUS CHAMBERS 




S I WAS rambling one day about the Moorish halls, 



my attention was, for the first time, attracted to a 
door in a remote gallery, communicating apparently 
with some part of the Alhambra which I had not yet explored. 
I attempted to open it, but it was locked. I knocked, but no 
one answered, and the sound seemed to reverberate through 
empty chambers. Here then was a mystery. Here was the 
haunted wing of the castle. How was I to get at the dark 
secrets here shut up from the public eye ? Should I come 
privately at night with lamp and sword, according to the pry- 
ing custom of heroes of romance ; or should I endeavor to 
draw the secret from Pepe, the stuttering gardener ; or the 
ingenuous Dolores, or the loquacious Mateo ? Or should I 
go frankly and openly to Dame Antonia, the chatelaine, and 
ask her all about it ? I chose the latter course, as being the 

[90] 



THE MYSTERIOUS CHAMBERS 

simplest though the least romantic ; and found, somewhat 
to my disappointment, that there was no mystery in the 
case. I was welcome to explore the apartment, and there 
was the key. 

Thus provided, I returned forthwith to the door. It opened, 
as I had surmised, to a range of vacant chambers ; but they 
were quite different from the rest of the palace. The archi- 
tecture, though rich and antiquated, was European. There 
was nothing Moorish about it. The first two rooms were 
lofty ; the ceilings, broken in many places, were of cedar, 
deeply panelled and skilfully carved with fruits and flowers, 
intermingled with grotesque masks or faces. 

The walls had evidently in ancient times been hung with 
damask ; but now were naked and scrawled over by that class 
of aspiring travellers who defile noble monuments with their 
worthless names. The windows, dismantled and open to wind 
and weather, looked out into a charming little secluded gar- 
den, where an alabaster fountain sparkled among roses and 
myrtles, and was surrounded by orange and citron trees, some 
of which flung their branches into the chambers. Beyond 
these rooms were two saloons, longer but less lofty, looking 
also into the garden. In the compartments of the panelled 
ceilings were baskets of fruit and garlands of flowers, painted 
by no mean hand, and in tolerable preservation. The walls 
also had been painted in fresco in the Italian style, but the 
paintings were nearly obliterated ; the windows were in the 
same shattered state with those of the other chambers. This 
fanciful suite of rooms terminated in an open gallery with 
balustrades, running at right angles along another side of the 
garden. The whole apartment, so delicate and elegant in its 
decorations, so choice and sequestered in its situation along 

[91] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

this retired little garden, and so different in architecture from 
the neighboring halls, awakened an interest in its history. I 
found on inquiry that it was an apartment fitted up by Italian 
artists in the early part of the last century, at the time when 
Philip V and his second wife, the beautiful Elizabetta of 
Farnese, daughter of the Duke of Parma, were expected at 
the Alhambra. It was destined for the queen and the ladies 
of her train. One of the loftiest chambers had been her 
sleeping-room. A narrow staircase, now walled up, led up to 
a delightful belvedere, originally a mirador of the Moorish 
sultanas, but which was fitted up as a boudoir for the fair 
Elizabetta, and still retains the name of El Tocador de la 
Reina, or the queen's toilette. 

One window of the royal sleeping-room commanded a 
prospect of the Generalife and its embowered terraces ; an- 
other looked out into the little secluded garden I have men- 
tioned, which was decidedly Moorish in its character, and 
also had its history. It was in- fact the garden of Lindaraxa, 
so often mentioned in descriptions of the Alhambra, but who 
this Lindaraxa was I had never heard explained. A little 
research gave me the few particulars known about her. She 
was a Moorish beauty who flourished in the court of Muhamed 
the Left-Handed, and was the daughter of his loyal adherent 
the Alcaide of Malaga, who sheltered him in his city when 
driven from the throne. On regaining his crown, the Alcaide 
was rewarded for his fidelity. His daughter had her apart- 
ment in the Alhambra, and was given by the king in mar- 
riage to Nasar, a young Celtimerian prince descended from 
Aben Hud the Just. Their espousals were doubtless cele- 
brated in the royal palace, and their honeymoon may have 
passed among these very bowers. 

[93] 










^^'-mh 






''4<^" 



2: m-;^ 






v-J-fif*!. JiL^Ctl 



THE QUEEN'S CHAMBER 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Four centuries had elapsed since the fair Lindaraxa passed 
away, yet how much of the fragile beauty of the scenes she 
inhabited remained ! The garden still bloomed in which she 
delighted ; the fountain still presented the crystal mirror in 
which her charms may once have been reflected ; the alabas- 
ter, it is true, had lost its whiteness ; the basin beneath, over- 
run with weeds, had become the lurking-place of the lizard, 
but there was something in the very decay that enhanced the 
interest of the scene, speaking as it did of that mutability, 
the irrevocable lot of man and all his works. 

The desolation too of these chambers, once the abode of 
the proud and elegant Elizabetta, had a more touching charm 
for me than if I had beheld them in their pristine splendor, 
glittering with the pageantry of a court. 

When I returned to my quarters, in the governor's apart- 
ment, everything seemed tame and commonplace after the 
poetic region I had left. The thought suggested itself : Why 
could I not change my quarters to these vacant chambers ? 
that would indeed be living in the Alhambra, surrounded by 
its gardens and fountains, as in the time of the Moorish sov- 
ereigns. I proposed the change to Dame Antonia and her 
family, and it occasioned vast surprise. They could not con- 
ceive any rational inducement for the choice of an apartment 
so forlorn, remote, and solitary. Dolores exclaimed at its 
frightful loneliness ; nothing but bats and owls flitting about 
— and then a fox and wildcat kept in the vaults of the neigh- 
boring baths, and roamed about at night. The good Tia had 
more reasonable objections. The neighborhood was infested 
by vagrants ; gypsies swarmed in the caverns of the adjacent 
hills ; the palace was ruinous and easy to be entered in many 
places ; the rumor of a stranger quartered alone in one of the 

[94] 



THE MYSTERIOUS CHAMBERS 

remote and ruined apartments, out of the hearing of the rest 
of the inhabitants, might tempt unwelcome visitors in the 
night, especially as foreigners were always supposed to be 
well stocked with money. I was not to be diverted from my 
humor, however, and my will was law with these good people. 
So, calling in the assistance of a carpenter, and the ever offi- 
cious Mateo Ximenes, the doors and windows were soon placed 
in a state of tolerable security, and the sleeping-room of the 
stately P21izabetta prepared for my reception. Mateo kindly 
volunteered as a body-guard to sleep in my antechamber ; but 
I did not think it worth while to put his valor to the proof. 

With all the hardihood I had assumed and all the precau- 
tions I had taken, I must confess the first night passed in 
these quarters was inexpressibly dreary. I do not think it 
was so much the apprehension of dangers from without that 
affected me, as the character of the place itself, with all its 
strange associations : the deeds of violence committed there ; 
the tragical ends of many of those who had once reigned 
there in splendor. As I passed beneath the fated halls of the 
tower of Comares on the way to my chamber, I called to mind 
a quotation, that used to thrill me in the days of boyhood : 

" Fate sits on these dark battlements and frowns ; 
And, as the portal opens to receive me, 
A voice in sullen echoes through the courts 
Tells of a nameless deed ! " 

The whole family escorted me to my chamber and took 
leave of me as one engaged on a perilous enterprise ; and 
when I heard their retreating steps die away along the waste 
antechambers and echoing galleries, and turned the key of my 
door, I was reminded of those hobgoblin stories where the hero 
is left to accomplish the adventure of an enchanted house. 

[95] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Even the thoughts of the fair Ehzabetta and the beauties 
of her court who had once graced these chambers, now, by 
a perversion of fancy, added to the gloom. Here was the 
scene of their transient gayety and lovehness ; here were 
the traces of their elegance and enjoyment ; but what and 
where were they ? Dust and ashes ! tenants of the tomb ! 
phantoms of the memory ! 

A vague and indescribable awe was creeping over me. 
I would fain have ascribed it to the thoughts of robbers 
awakened by the evening's conversation, but I felt it was 
something more unreal and absurd. The long-buried super- 
stitions of the nursery were reviving, and asserting their 
power over my imagination. Everything began to be affected 
by the working of my mind. The whispering of the wind 
among the citron-trees beneath my window had something 
sinister. I cast my eyes into the garden of Lindaraxa ; the 
groves presented a gulf of shadows, the thickets indistinct 
and ghastly shapes. I was glad to close the window, but my 
chamber itself became infected. There was a slight rustling 
noise overhead ; a bat suddenly emerged from a broken 
panel of the ceiling, flitting about the room and athwart my 
solitary lamp ; and as the fateful bird almost flouted my face 
with his noiseless wing, the grotesque faces carved in high 
relief in the cedar ceiling whence he had emerged seemed 
to mope and mow at me. 

Rousing myself, and half smiling at this temporary weak- 
ness, I resolved to brave it out in the true spirit of the hero 
of the enchanted house ; so, taking lamp in hand, I sallied 
forth to make a tour of the palace. Notwithstanding every 
mental exertion the task was a severe one. I had to traverse 
waste halls and mysterious galleries, where the rays of the 

[96] 



THE MYSTERIOUS CHAMBERS 

lamp extended but a short distance around me. I walked, as 
it were, in a mere halo of light, walled in by impenetrable 
darkness. The vaulted corridors were as caverns ; the ceil- 
ings of the halls were lost in gloom. I recalled all that had 
been said of the danger from interlopers in these remote 
and ruined apartments. Might not some vagrant foe be 
lurking before or behind me, in the outer darkness .? My 
own shadow, cast upon the wall, began to disturb me. The 
echoes of my own footsteps along the corridors made me 
pause and look round. I was traversing scenes fraught with 
dismal recollections. One dark passage led down to the 
mosque where Yusef, the Moorish monarch, the finisher of 
the Alhambra, had been basely murdered. In another place 
I trod the gallery where another monarch had been struck 
down by the poniard of a relative whom he had thwarted in 
his love. 

A low murmuring sound, as of stifled voices and clanking 
chains, now reached me. It seemed to come from the Hall 
of the Abencerrages. I knew it to be the rush of water 
through subterranean channels, but it sounded strangely in 
the night, and reminded me of the dismal stories to which 
it had given rise. 

Soon, however, my ear was assailed by sounds too fearfully 
real lo be the work of fancy. As I was crossing the Hall of 
Ambassadors, low moans and broken ejaculations rose, as it 
were, from beneath my feet. I paused and listened. They 
then appeared to be outside of the tower — then again within. 
Then broke forth bowlings as of an animal — then stifled 
shrieks and inarticulate ravings. Heard in that dead hour 
and singular place the effect was thrilling. I had no desire 
for further perambulation, but returned to my chamber with 

[97] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

infinitely more alacrity than I had sallied forth, and drew my 
breath more freely when once more within its walls and the 
door bolted behind me. When I awoke in the morning, with 
the sun shining in at my window and lighting up every part 
of the building with his cheerful and truth-telling beams, I 
could scarcely recall the shadows and fancies conjured up by 
the gloom of the preceding night, or believe that the scenes 
around me, so naked and apparent, could have been clothed 
with such imaginary horrors. 

Still, the dismal bowlings and ejaculations I had heard 
were not ideal ; they were soon accounted for, however, by 
my handmaid Dolores, being the ravings of a poor maniac, 
a brother of her aunt, who was subject to violent paroxysms, 
during which he was confined in a vaulted room beneath the 
Hall of Ambassadors. 

In the course of a few evenings a thorough change took 
place in the scene and its associations. The moon, which 
when I took possession of my new apartments was invisible, 
gradually gained each evening upon the darkness of the night, 
and at length rolled in full splendor above the towers, pouring 
a flood of tempered light into every court and hall. The gar- 
den beneath my window, before wrapped in gloom, was gently 
lighted up ; the orange and citron trees were tipped with sil- 
ver, the fountain sparkled in the moonbeams, and even the 
blush of the rose was faintly visible. 

I now felt the poetic merit of the Arabic inscription on the 
walls : "How beauteous is this garden ; where the flowers 
of the earth vie with the stars of heaven. What can compare 
with the vase of yon alabaster fountain filled with crystal water ? 
nothing but the moon in her fulness, shining in the midst of 
an unclouded sky ! " 

[98] 










^••-^SsC 



V / , 









:vv? 



'i,'^- 



THE ALHAMBRA 

On such heavenly nights I would sit for hours at my win- 
dow, inhaling the sweetness of the garden, and musing on 
the checkered fortunes of those whose history was dimly 
shadowed out in the elegant memorials around. Sometimes, 
when all was quiet, and the clock from the distant cathedral 
of Granada struck the midnight hour, I have sallied out on 
another tour and wandered over the whole building ; ' but how 
different from my first tour ! No longer dark and mysteri- 
ous ; no longer peopled with shadowy foes ; no longer recall- 
ing scenes of violence and murder ; all was open, spacious, 
beautiful ; everything called up pleasing and romantic fancies ; 
Lindaraxa once more walk^ed in her garden; the gay chivalry 
of Moslem Granada once more glittered about the Court of 
Lions ! Who can do justice to a moonlight night in such a 
climate and such a place ? The temperature of a summer 
midnight in Andalusia is perfectly ethereal. We seem lifted 
up into a purer atmosphere ; we feel a serenity of soul, a 
buoyancy of spirits, an elasticity of frame, which render mere 
existence happiness. But when moonlight is added to all this, 
the effect is like enchantment. Under its plastic sway the 
Alhambra seems to regain its pristine glories. Every rent 
and chasm of time, every mouldering tint and weather stain 
is gone ; the marble resumes its original whiteness, the long 
colonnades brighten in the moonbeams, the halls are illumi- 
nated with a softened radiance, — we tread the enchanted 
palace of an Arabian tale ! 

What a delight, at such a time, to ascend to the little airy 
pavilion of the queen's toilette (El Tocador de la Reina), 
which, like a bird-cage, overhangs the valley of the Darro, and 
gaze from its light arcades upon the moonlight prospect ! To 
the right, the swelling mountains of the Sierra Nevada, robbed 

[looj 



THE MYSTERIOUS CHAMBERS 

of their ruggedness and softened into a fairy land, with their 
snowy summits gleaming like silver clouds against the deep 
blue sky. And then to lean over the parapet of the Tocador 
and gaze down upon Granada and the Albaicin spread out 
like a map below, all buried in deep repose ; the white palaces 
and convents sleeping in the moonshine, and beyond all 'these 
the vapory Vega fading away like a dreamland in the distance. 

Sometimes the faint click of castanets rise from the Ala- 
meda, where some gay Andalusians are dancing away the 
summer night. Sometimes the dubious tones of a guitar and 
the notes of an amorous voice tell perchance the whereabout 
of some moonstruck lover serenading his lady's window. 

Such is a faint picture of the moonlight nights I have 
passed loitering about the courts and halls and balconies of 
this most suggestive pile ; " feeding my fancy with sugared 
suppositions," and enjoying that mixture of reverie and sensa- 
tion which steal away existence in a southern climate ; so that 
it has been almost morning before I have retired to bed, and 
been lulled to sleep by the falling waters of the fountain of 
Lindaraxa. 



[lOl] 




tur>fi'^>i 4tif:!\^ /H/\{n 



PANORAMA FROM THE TOWER OF COMARES 



T IS a serene and beautiful morning; the sun has not 
gained sufficient power to destroy the freshness of the 

. night. What a morning to mount to the summit of the 
Tower of Comares and take a bird's-eye view of Granada and 
its environs ! 

Come then, worthy reader and comrade, follow my steps 
into this vestibule, ornamented with rich tracery, which opens 
into the Hall of Ambassadors. We will not enter the hall, 
however, but turn to this small door opening into the wall. 
Have a care ! here are steep winding steps and but scanty 
light, yet up this narrow, obscure, and spiral staircase the 
proud monarchs of Granada and their queens have often as- 
cended to the battlements to watch the approach of invading 
armies or gaze with anxious hearts on the battles in the Vega. 

At length we have reached the terraced roof and may take 
breath for a moment while we cast a general eye over the 

[ 102] 



PANORAMA FROM TOWER OF COMARES 

splendid panorama of city and country, of rocky mountain, 
verdant valley, and fertile plain ; of castle, cathedral, Moorish 
towers, and Gothic domes, crumbling ruins, and blooming 
groves. Let us approach the battlements and cast our eyes 
immediately below. See, on this side we have the whole plain 
of the Alhambra laid open to us and can look down into its 
courts and gardens. At the foot of the tower is the Court of 
the Alberca, with its great tank or fishpool, bordered with 
flowers ; and yonder is the Court of Lions with its famous 
fountain and its light Moorish arcades ; and in the centre of 
the pile is the little garden of Lindaraxa, buried in the heart 
of the building, with its roses and citrons and shrubbery of 
emerald green. 

That belt of battlements, studded with square towers, strag- 
gling round the brow of the hill, is the outer boundary of the for- 
tress. Some of the towers, you may perceive, are in ruins and 
their massive fragments buried among vines, fig-trees, and aloes. 

Let us look on this northern side of the tower. It is a 
giddy height ; the very foundations of the tower rise above 
the groves of the steep hillside. And see ! a long fissure in 
the massive walls shows that the tower has been rent by some 
of the earthquakes which from time to time have thrown 
Granada into consternation, and which, sooner or later, must 
reduce this crumbling pile to a mere mass of ruin. The deep 
narrow glen below us, which gradually widens as it opens 
from the mountains, is the valley of the Darro ; you see the 
little river winding its way under embowered terraces, and 
among orchards and flower-gardens. It is a stream famous 
in old times for yielding gold, and its sands are still sifted 
occasionally in search of the precious ore. Some of those 
white paviHons, which here and there gleam from among 

[103] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

groves and vineyards, were rustic retreats of the Moors to 
enjoy the refreshment of their gardens. Well have they been 
compared by one of their poets to so many pearls set in a 
bed of emeralds. 

The airy palace, with its tall white towers and long arcades, 
which breasts yon mountain, among pompous groves and 
hanging gardens, is the Generalife, a summer palace of the 
Moorish kings, to which they resorted during the sultry 
months to enjoy a still more breezy region than that of the 
Alhambra. The naked summit of the height above it, where 
you behold some shapeless ruins, is the Silla del Moro, or 
Seat of the Moor, so called from having been a retreat of the 
unfortunate Boabdil during the time of an insurrection, where 
he seated himself and looked down mournfully upon his 
rebellious city, 

A murmuring sound of water now and then rises from the 
valley. It is from the aqueduct of yon Moorish mill, nearly 
at the foot of the hill. The avenue of trees beyond is the 
Alameda, along the bank of the Darro, a favorite resort in 
evenings and a rendezvous of lovers in the summer nights 
when the guitar may be heard at a late hour from the benches 
along its walks. At present you see none but a few loitering 
monks there and a group of water-carriers. The latter are 
burdened with water-jars of ancient Oriental construction, 
such as were used by the Moors. They have been filled at 
the cold and limpid spring called the Fountain of Avellanos. 
Yon mountain path leads to the fountain, a favorite resort of 
Moslems as well as Christians ; for this is said to be the 
Adinamar (Aynu-1-adamar), the " Fountain of Tears," men- 
tioned by Ibn Batuta, the traveller, and celebrated in the 
histories and romances of the Moors. 

[ i°4] 



PANORAMA FROM TOWER OF COM A RES 

You start ! 't is nothing but a hawk that we have frightened 
from his nest. This old tower is a complete breeding-place 
for vagrant birds ; the swallow and martlet abound in every 
chink and cranny, and circle about it the whole day long ; 
while at night, when all other birds have gone to rest, the 
moping owl comes out of its lurking-place, and utters its 
boding cry from the battlements. See how the hawk we have 
dislodged sweeps away below us, skimming over the tops of 
the trees, and sailing up to the ruins above the Generalife ! 

I see you raise your eyes to the snowy summit of yon pile 
of mountains, shining like a white summer cloud in the blue 
sky. It is the Sierra Nevada, the pride and delight of Gra- 
nada ; the source of her cooling breezes and perpetual ver- 
dure, of her gushing fountains and perennial streams. It is 
this glorious pile of mountains which gives to Granada that 
combination of delights so rare in a southern city, — the 
fresh vegetation and temperate airs of a northern climate, 
with the vivifying ardor of a tropical sun, and the cloudless 
azure of a southern sky. It is this aerial treasury of snow, 
which, melting in proportion to the increase of the summer 
heat, sends down ri\ulets and streams through every glen 
and gorge of the Alpuxarras, diffusing emerald verdure and 
fertility throughout a chain of happy and sequestered valleys. 

Those mountains may be well called the glory of Granada. 
They dominate the whole extent of Andalusia, and may be 
seen from its most distant parts. The muleteer hails them, 
as he views their frosty peaks from the sultry level of the 
plain ; and the Spanish mariner on the deck of his bark, far, 
far off on the bosom of the blue Mediterranean, watches them 
with a pensive eye, thinks of delightful Granada, and chants, 
in low voice, some old romance about the Moors. 



THE ALHAMBRA 

See to the south at the foot of those mountains a Hne of arid 
hills, down which a long train of mules is slowly moving. Here 
was the closing scene of Moslem domination. From the summit 
of one of those hills the unfortunate Boabdil cast back his last 
look upon Granada, and gave vent to the agony of his soul. It is 
the spot famous in song and story, "The last sigh of the Moor." 

Further this way these arid hills slope down into the lux- 
urious Vega, from which he had just emerged : a blooming 
wilderness of grove and garden, and teeming orchard, with 
the Xenil winding through it in silver links, and feeding 
innumerable rills ; which, conducted through ancient Moor- 
ish channels, maintain the landscape in perpetual verdure. 
Here were the beloved bowers and gardens, and rural pavil- 
ions, for which the unfortunate Moors fought with such des- 
perate valor. The very hovels and rude granges, now inhabited 
by boors, show, by the remains of arabesques and other taste- 
ful decoration, that they were elegant residences in the days 
of the Moslems. Behold, in the very centre of this eventful 
plain, a place which in a manner links the history of the Old 
World with that of the New. Yon line of walls and towers 
gleaming in the morning sun is the city of Santa Fe, built 
by the Catholic sovereigns during the siege of Granada, after 
a conflagration had destroyed their camp. It was to these 
walls Columbus was called back by the heroic queen, and 
within them the treaty was concluded which led to the dis- 
covery of the Western World, Behind yon promontory to 
the west is the bridge of Pinos, renowned for many a bloody 
fight between Moors and Christians. At this bridge the mes- 
senger overtook Columbus when, despairing of success with 
the Spanish sovereigns, he was departing to carry his project 
of discovery to the court of France. 

[io6] 



PANORAMA FROM TOWER OF COMARES 

Above the bridge a range of mountains bounds the Vega 
to the west, — the ancient barrier between Granada and the 
Christian territories. Among their heights you may still dis- 
cern warrior towns ; their gray walls and battlements seeming 
of a piece with the rocks on which they are built. Here and 
there a solitary atalaya, or watchtower, perched on a moun- 
tain peak, looks down as it were from the sky into the valley 
on either side. How often have these atalayas given notice, 
by fire at night or smoke by day, of an approaching foe ! It 
was down a cragged defile of these mountains, called the 
Pass of Lope, that the Christian armies descended into the 
Vega. Round the base of yon gray and naked mountain 
(the mountain of Elvira), stretching its bold rocky promontory 
into the bosom of the plain, the mvading squadrons would 
come bursting into view, with flaunting banners and clangor 
of drum and trumpet. 

Plve hundred years have elapsed since Ismael ben Ferrag, 
a Moorish king of Granada, beheld from this very tower an 
invasion of the kind, and an insulting ravage of the Vega ; 
on which occasion he displayed an instance of chivalrous 
magnanimity, often witnessed in the Moslem princes, "whose 
history," says an Arabian writer, " abounds in generous actions 
and noble deeds that will last through all succeeding ages, 
and live forever in the memory of man." — But let us sit 
down on this parapet, and I will relate the anecdote. 

It was in the year of Grace 13 19, that Ismael ben Ferrag 
beheld from this tower a Christian camp whitening the skirts 
of yon mountain of Elvira. The royal princes, Don Juan 
and Don Pedro, regents of Castile during the minority of 
Alphonso XI, had already laid waste the country from Al- 
caudete to Alcala la Real, capturing the castle of Illora, and 

[107] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

setting fire to its suburbs, and they now carried their insult- 
ing ravages to the very gates of Granada, defying the king 
to sally forth and give them battle. 

Ismael, though a young and intrepid prince, hesitated to 
accept the challenge. He had not sufficient force at hand, 
and awaited the arrival of troops summoned from the neigh- 
boring towns. The Christian princes, mistaking his motives, 
gave up all hope of drawing him forth, and having glutted 
themselves with ravage, struck their tents and began their 
homeward march. Don Pedro led the van, and Don Juan 
brought up the rear, but their march was confused and irreg- 
ular, the army being greatly encumbered by the spoils and 
captives they had taken. 

By this time King Ismael had received his expected re- 
sources, and putting them under the command of Osmyn, 
one of the bravest of his generals, sent them forth in hot 
pursuit of the enemy. The Christians were overtaken in the 
defiles of the mountains. A panic seized them ; they were 
completely routed, and driven with great slaughter across the 
borders. Both of the princes lost their lives. The body of 
Don Pedro was carried off by his soldiers, but that of Don 
Juan was lost in the darkness of the night. His son wrote 
to the Moorish king, entreating that the body of his father 
might be sought and honorably treated. Ismael forgot in a 
moment that Don Juan was an enemy, who had carried rav- 
age and insult to the very gate of his capital ; he only thought 
of him as a gallant cavalier and a royal prince. By his com- 
mand diligent search was made for the body. It was found 
in a barranco and brought to Granada. There Ismael caused 
it to be laid out in state on a lofty bier, surrounded by torches 
and tapers, in one of these halls of the Alhambra. Osmyn 

TioSl 



PANORAMA FROM TOWER OF CO MARES 

and other of the nf)blest eavaUers were appointed as a guard 
of honor, and the Christian eaptives were assembled to pray 
around it. 

In the meantime, Ismael wrote to the son of Prince Juan 
to send a convoy for the body, assuring him it should be 
faithfully delivered up. In due time, a band of Christian 
cavaliers arrived for the purpose. They were honorably re- 
ceived and entertained by Ismael, and, on their departure with 
the body, the guard of honor of Moslem cavaliers escorted 
the funeral train' to the frontier. 

But enough ; — the sun is high above the mountains, and 
povirs his full fervor on our heads. Already the terraced roof 
is hot beneath our feet ; let us abandon it, and refresh our- 
selves under the arcades by the Fountain of the Lions. 



[109] 



— TTWZ- 






m»^^ 



, . I 13 5 ill 




. l-/-->-l- /H./iv 



THE BALCONY 

HAVE spoken of a balcony of the central window of 
the Hall of Ambassadors. It served as a kind of observ- 
atory, where I used often to take my seat, and consider 
not merely the heaven above but the earth beneath. Besides 
the magnificent prospect which it commanded of mountain, 
valley, and plain, there was a little busy scene of human life 
laid open to inspection immediately below. At the foot of 
the hill was an alamcda, or public walk, which, though not 
so fashionable as the more modern and splendid paseo of 
the Xenil, still boasted a varied and picturesque concourse. 
Hither resorted the small gentry of the suburbs, together 
with the majos and majas, beaux and belles of the lower 
classes, in their Andalusian dresses ; swaggering contraban- 
distas, and sometimes half-muffled and mysterious loungers 
of the higher ranks. 

[no] 



THE BALCONY 

It was a moving picture of Spanish life and character, 
which I dehghted to study ; and as the astronomer has his 
grand telescope with which to sweep the skies, and, as it 
were, bring the stars nearer for his inspection, so I had a 
smaller one, of pocket size, for the use of my observatory, 
with which I could sweep the regions below, and bring the 
countenances of the motley groups so close as almost, at 
times, to make me think I could divine their conversation 
by the play and expression of their features. I was thus, in 
a manner, an invisible observer, and, without quitting my 
solitude, could throw myself in an instant into the midst of 
society, — a rare advantage to one of somewhat shy and quiet 
habits, and fond, like myself, of observing the drama of life 
without becoming an actor in the scene. 

There was a considerable suburb lying below the Alham- 
bra, filling the narrow gorge of the valley, and extending up 
the opposite hill of the Albaicin. Many of the houses were 
built in the Moorish style, round patios, or courts, cooled by 
fountains and open to the sky ; and as the inhabitants passed 
much of their time in these courts, and on the terraced roofs 
during the summer season, it follows that many a glance at 
their domestic life might be obtained by an aerial spectator 
like myself, who could look down on them from the clouds. 

I occasionally amused myself with noting from this balcony 
the gradual changes of the scenes below, according to the 
different stages of the day. 

Scarce has the gray dawn streaked the sky, and the earliest 
cock crowed from the cottages of the hill-side, when the sub- 
urbs give sign of reviving animation ; for the fresh hours of 
dawning are precious in the summer season in a sultry climate. 
All are anxious to get the start of the sun, in the business of 

[III] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

the day. The muleteer drives forth his loaded train for the 
journey ; the traveller slings his carbine behind his saddle, 
and mounts his steed at the gate of the hostel ; the brown 
peasant from the country urges forward his loitering beasts, 
laden with panniers of sunny fruit and fresh dewy vegetables, 
for already the thrifty housewives are hastening to the market. 

The sun is up and sparkles along the valley, tipping the 
transparent foliage of the groves. The matin bells resound 
melodiously through the pure, bright air, announcing the 
hour of devotion. The muleteer halts his burdened animals 
before the chapel, thrusts his staff through his belt behind, 
and enters with hat in hand, smoothing his coal-black hair, to 
put up a prayer for a prosperous wayfaring across the sierra. 

As the morning advances, the din of labor augments on 
every side ; the streets are thronged with man, and steed, 
and beast of burden, and there is a hum and murmur, like 
the surges of the ocean. As the sun ascends to his meridian, 
the hum and bustle gradually decline ; at the height of noon 
there is a pause. The panting city sinks into lassitude, and 
for several hours there is a general repose. The windows 
are closed, the curtains drawn, the inhabitants retired into 
the coolest recesses of their mansions ; the brawny porter 
lies stretched on the pavement beside his burden ; the peas- 
ant and the laborer sleep beneath the trees of the promenade, 
lulled by the sultry chirping of the locust. The streets are 
deserted, except by the water-carrier, who refreshes the ear 
by proclaiming the merits of his sparkling beverage, " colder 
than the mountain snow." 

As the sun declines, there is again a gradual reviving, 
and when the vesper bell rings out his sinking knell, all 
nature seems to rejoice that the tyrant of the day has fallen. 

[112] 



THE BALCONY 

Now begins the bustle of enjoyment, when the citizens pour 
forth to breathe the evening air, and revel away the brief 
twilight in the walks and gardens of the Darro and Xenil. 

As night closes, the capricious scene assumes new features. 
Light after light gradually twinkles forth ; here a taper from 
a balconied window ; there a votive lamp before the image 
of a Saint. Thus, by degrees, the city emerges from the 
pervading gloom, and sparkles with scattered lights, like the 
starry firmament. Now break forth from court and garden, 
and street and lane, the tinkling of innumerable guitars, and 
the clicking of castanets ; blending, at this lofty height, in a 
faint but general concert. 

I was one evening seated in the balcony, enjoying the 
light breeze that came rustling along the side of the hill, 
among the tree-tops, when my humble historiographer Mateo, 
who was at my elbow, pointed out a spacious house, in an 
obscure street of the Albaicin, about which he related, as 
nearly as I can recollect, the following anecdote. 



[113] 











THE ADVENTURE OF THE MASON 



^HERE was once upon a time a poor mason, or brick- 
layer, in Granada, who kept all the saints' days and 
holidays, and yet, with all his devotion, he grew 
poorer and poorer, and could scarcely earn bread for his 
numerous family. One night he was roused from his first 
sleep by a knocking at his door. He opened it, and beheld- 
before him a tall, meagre, cadaverous-looking person. 

"Hark ye, honest friend!" said the stranger; "I have 
observed that you are a good Christian, and one to be 
trusted ; will you undertake a job this very night .? " 

"With all my heart, Senor, on condition that I am paid 
accordingly." 

" That you shall be ; but you must suffer yourself to be 
blindfolded." 

To this the mason made no objection. So, being hood- 
winked, he was led by the stranger through various rough 

["4] 



THE ADVENTURE OF THE MASON 

lanes and winding passages, until they stopped before the 
ix)rtal of a house. The stranger then applied a key, turned 
a creaking lock, and opened what sounded like a ponderous 
door. They entered, the door was closed and bolted, and 
the mason was conducted through an echoing corridor and 
a spacious hall to an interior part of the building. Here the 
bandage was remctved from his eyes, and he found himself 
in a court, dimly lighted by a single lamp. In the centre 
was the dry basin of an old Moorish fountain, under which 
the stranger requested him to form a small vault, bricks 
and mortar being at hand for the purpose. He accordingly 
worked all night, but without finishing the job. Just before 
daybreak the stranger put a piece of gold into his hand, 
and having again blindfolded him, conducted him back 
to his dwelling. 

"Are you willing," said he, "to return and complete 
your work ? " 

" Gladly, seiior, provided I am so well paid." 

"Well, then, to-morrow at midnight I will call again." 

He did so, and the vault was completed. 

"Now," said the stranger, "you must help me to bring 
forth the bodies that are to be buried in this vault." 

The poor mason's hair rose on his head at these words : 
he followed the stranger, with trembling steps, into a retired 
chamber of the mansion, expecting to behold some ghastly 
spectacle of death, but was relieved on perceiving three or 
four portly jars standing in one corner. They were evidently 
full of money, and it was with great labor that he and the 
stranger carried them forth and consigned them to their 
tomb. The vault was then closed, the pavement replaced, 
and all traces of the work were obliterated. The mason was 

["5] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

again hoodwinked and led forth by a route different from 
that by which he had come. After they had wandered for a 
long time through a perplexed maze of lanes and alleys, they 
halted. The stranger then put two pieces of gold into his 
hand : " Wait here," said he, "' until you hear the cathedral 
bell toll for matins. If you presume to uncover your eyes 
before that time, evil will befall you" : so saying, he departed. 
The mason waited faithfully, amusing himself by weighing 
the gold pieces in his hand, and clinking them against each 
other. The moment the cathedral bell rang its matin peal, 
he uncovered his eyes, and found himself on the banks of 
the Xenil ; whence he made the best of his way home, and 
revelled with his family for a whole fortnight on the profits 
of his two nights' work ; after which he was as poor as ever. 
He continued to work a little, and keep saints' days and 
holidays, from year to year, while his family grew up as gaunt 
and ragged as a crew of gypsies. As he was seated one eve- 
ning at the door of his hovel, he was accosted by a rich old 
curmudgeon, who was noted for owning many houses, and 
being a griping landlord. The man of money eyed him for 
a moment from beneath a pair of anxious shagged eyebrows. 
" I am told, friend, that you are very poor." 
"' There is no denying the fact, senor, — it speaks for 
itself." 

'" I presume, then, that you will be glad of a job, and will 
work cheap." 

" As cheap, my master, as any mason in Granada." 
" That 's what I want. I have an old house fallen into 
decay, which costs me more money than it is worth to keep it 
in repair, for nobody will live in it ; so I must contrive to patch 
it up and keep it together at as small expense as possible." 

[.ii6] 







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^■*N» H!% 












(I 



4.:. :-=iis;-:»?5i,--. '' "ja, 






STREET OF THE DARRO 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The mason was accordingly conducted to a large deserted 
house that seemed going to ruin. Passing through several 
empty halls and chambers, he entered an inner court, where 
his eye was caught by an old Moorish fountain. He paused 
for a moment, for a dreaming recollection of the place came 
over him, 

" Pray," said he, " who occupied this house formerly ? " 

" A pest upon him ! " cried the landlord ; "it was an old 
miser, who cared for nobody but himself. He was said to be 
immensely rich, and, having no relations, it was thought he 
would leave all his treasures to the Church. He died suddenly, 
but nothing could be found but a few ducats in a leathern 
purse. The worst luck has fallen on me, for, since his death, 
the old fellow continues to occupy my house without paying 
rent, and there is no taking the law of a dead man. The 
people pretend to hear the clinking of gold all night in the 
chamber where the old miser slept, as if he were counting 
over his money, and sometimes a groaning and moaning 
about the court. Whether true or false, these stories have 
brought a bad name on my house, and not a tenant will 
remain in it." 

"" Enough," said the mason sturdily : "let me live in your 
house rent-free until some better tenant present, and I will 
engage to put it in repair, and to quiet the troubled spirit that 
disturbs it. I am a good Christian and a poor man, and am 
not to be daunted by the Devil himself, even though he should 
come in the shape of a big bag of money ! " 

The offer of the honest mason was gladly accepted ; he 
moved with his family into the house, and fulfilled all his 
engagements. By little and little he restored it to its former 
state ; the clinking of gold was no more heard at night in 

[iiS] 



THE ADVENTURE OF THE MASON 

the chamber of the defunct miser, but began to be heard by 
day in the pocket of the Hving mason. In a word, he increased 
rapidly in wealth, to the admiration of all his neighbors, 
became one of the richest men in Granada, and never re- 
vealed the secret of the vault until on his death-bed to his 
son and heir. 



[^19] 









THE COURT OF LIONS 



'^^HE peculiar charm of this old dreamy palace is its 
power of calling up vague reveries and picturings of 
the past, and thus clothing naked realities with the 
illusions of the memory and the imagination. As I delight 
to walk in these "vain shadows," I am prone to seek those 
parts of the Alhambra which are most favorable to this phan- 
tasmagoria of the mind ; and none are more so than the Court 
of Lions, and its surrounding halls. Here the hand of time 
has fallen the lightest, and the traces of Moorish elegance 
and splendor exist in almost their original brilliancy. Earth- 
quakes have shaken the foundations of this pile, and rent its 
rudest towers ; yet see ! not one of those slender columns has 
been displaced, not an arch of that light and fragile colonnade 
given way, and all the fairy fretwork of these domes, appar- 
ently as unsubstantial as the crystal fabrics of a morning's 
frost, exist after the lapse of centuries, almost as fresh as if 
from the hand of the Moslem artist. I write in the midst of 

[120] 



THE COURT OF L I O xN S 

these mementos of the past, in the fresh hour of early morn- 
ing, in the fated Hall of the Abencerrages. The blood-stained 
fountain, the legendary monument of their massacre, is before 
me ; the lofty jet almost casts its dew upon my paper. How 
difficult to reconcile the ancient tale of violence and blood 
with the gentle and peaceful scene around ! Everything here 
appears calculated to inspire kind and happy feelings, for 
everything is delicate and beautiful. The very light falls 
tenderly from above, through the lantern of a dome tinted 
and wrought as if by fairy hands. Through the ample and 
fretted arch of the portal I behold the Court of Lions, with 
brilliant sunshine gleaming along its colonnades and sparkling 
in its fountains. The lively swallow dives into the court, and, 
rising with a surge, darts away twittering over the roofs ; the 
busy bee toils humming among the flower-beds ; and painted 
butterflies hover from plant to plant, and flutter up and sport 
with each other in the sunny air. 

He, however, who would behold this scene under an aspect 
more in unison with its fortunes, let him come when the 
shadows of evening temper the brightness of the court, and 
throw a gloom into the surrounding halls. Then nothing 
can be more serenely melancholy, or more in harmony with 
the tale of departed grandeur. 

At such times I am apt to seek the Hall of Justice, whose 
deep shadowy arcades extend across the upper end of the 
court. Here was performed, in presence of Ferdinand and 
Isabella and their triumphant court, the pompous ceremonial 
of High Mass, on taking possession of the Alhambra. The 
very cross is still to be seen upon the wall, where the altar 
was erected, and where officiated the Grand Cardinal of 
Spain, and others of the highest religious dignitaries of the 

[I.M] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

land, I picture to myself the scene when this place was filled 
with the conquering host, that mixture of mitred prelate and 
shaven monk, and steel-clad knight and silken courtier ; when 
crosses and crosiers and religious standards were mingled 
with proud armorial ensigns and the banners of the haughty 
chiefs of Spain, and flaunted in triumph through these Mos- 
lem halls. I picture to myself Columbus, the future discoverer 
of a world, taking his modest stand in a remote corner, the 
humble and neglected spectator of the pageant. I see in 
imagination the Catholic sovereigns prostrating themselves 
before the altar, and pouring forth thanks for their victory ; 
while the vaults resound with sacred minstrelsy, and the 
deep-toned Te Denm. 

The transient illusion is over, — the pageant melts from 
the fancy, — monarch, priest, and warrior return into oblivion 
with the poor Moslems over whom they exulted. The hall 
of their triumph is waste and desolate. The bat flits about 
its twilight vault, and the owl hoots from the neighboring 
Tower of Comares. 

Entering the Court of the Lions a few evenings since, I 
was almost startled at beholding a turbaned Moor quietly 
seated near the fountain. For a moment one of the fictions 
of the place seemed realized : an enchanted Moor had broken 
the spell of centuries, and become visible. He proved, how- 
ever, to be a mere ordinary mortal, — a native of Tetuan, in 
Barbary, who had a shop in the Zacatin of Granada, where 
he sold rhubarb, trinkets, and perfumes. As he spoke Span- 
ish fluently, I was enabled to hold conversation with him, 
and found him shrewd and intelligent. He told me that he 
came up the hill occasionally in the summer, to pass a part 
of the day in the Alhambra, which reminded him of the old 

[122] 




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I 



4: Cili, 





/VjiVM.1!< il'fVI^IC 



THE HALL OF JUSTICE 



THE ALHAMBRA 

palaces in Barbary, being built and adorned in similar style, 
though with more magnificence. 

As we walked about the palace, he pointed out several of 
the Arabic inscriptions, as possessing much poetic beauty. 

"Ah, senor," said he, "when the Moors held Granada, 
they were a gayer people than they are nowadays. They 
thought only of love, music, and poetry. They made stanzas 
upon every occasion, and set them all to music. He who 
could make the best verses, and she who had the most tune- 
ful voice, might be sure of favor and preferment. In those 
days, if any one asked for bread, the reply was ' Make me a 
couplet ' ; and the poorest beggar, if he begged in rhyme, 
would often be rewarded with a piece of gold." 

" And is the popular feeling for poetry," said I, " entirely 
lost among you ? " 

"By no means, sefior ; the people of Barbary, even those 
of the lower classes, still make couplets — and good ones 
too — as in old times ; but talent is not rewarded as it was 
then. The rich prefer the jingle of their gold to the sound 
of poetry or music." 

As he was talking, his eye caught one of the inscriptions 
which foretold perpetuity to the power and glory of the Mos- 
lem monarchs, the masters of this pile. He shook his head, 
and shrugged his shoulders, as he interpreted it. " Such 
might have been the case," said he; "the Moslems might 
still have been reigning in the Alhambra, had not Boabdil 
been a traitor, and given up his capital to the Christians. The 
Spanish monarchs would never have been able to conquer it 
by open force." 

I endeavored to vindicate the memory of the unlucky 
Boabdil from this aspersion, and to show that the dissensions 

[124] 



THE COURT OF LIONS 

which led to the downfall of the Moorish throne originated 
in the cruelty of his tiger-hearted father. But the Moor would 
admit of no palliation. 

" Muley Abul Hassan," said he, " might have been cruel ; 
but he was brave, vigilant, and patriotic. Had he been prop- 
erly seconded, Granada would still have been ours ; but his 
son Boabdil thwarted his plans, crippled his power, sowed 
treason in his palace and dissension in his camp. May the 
curse of God light upon him for his treachery ! " With these 
words the Moor left the Alhambra. 

The indignation of my turbaned companion agrees with 
an anecdote related by a friend, who, in the course of a tour 
in Barbary, had an interview with the Pacha of Tetuan. The 
Moorish governor was particular in his inquiries about Spain, 
and especially concerning the favored region of Andalusia, 
the delights of Granada, and the remains of its royal palace. 
The replies awakened all those fond recollections, so deeply 
cherished by the Moors, of the power and splendor of their 
ancient empire in Spain. Turning to his Moslem attendants, 
the Pacha stroked his beard, and broke forth in passionate 
lamentations that such a sceptre should have fallen from the 
sway of true believers. He consoled himself, however, with 
the persuasion that the power and prosperity of the Spanish 
nation were on the decline ; that a time would come when 
the Moors would conquer their rightful domains, and that the 
day was perhaps not far distant when Mohammedan worship 
would again be offered up in the mosque of Cordova, and a 
Mohammedan prince sit on his throne in the Alhambra. 

Such is the general aspiration and belief among the Moors 
of Barbary, who consider Spain, or Andaluz, as it was an- 
ciently called, their rightful heritage, of which they have been 

[1^5] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

despoiled by treachery and violence. These ideas are fostered 
and perpetuated by the descendants of the exiled Moors of 
Granada, scattered among the cities of Barbary. Several of 
these reside in Tetuan, preserving their ancient names, such 
as Paez and Medina, and refraining from intermarriage with 
any families who cannot claim the same high origin. Their 
vaunted lineage is regarded with a degree of popular deference 
rarely shown in Mohammedan communities to any hereditary 
distinction, excepting in the royal line. 

These families, it is said, continue to sigh after the terres- 
trial paradise of their ancestors, and to put up prayers in their 
mosques on Fridays, imploring Allah to hasten the time when 
Granada shall be restored to the faithful : an event to which 
they look forward as fondly and confidently as did the Chris- 
tian crusaders to the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. Nay, 
it is added that some of them retain the ancient maps and 
deeds of the estates and gardens of their ancestors at Granada, 
and even the keys of the houses, holding them as evidences 
of their hereditary claims, to be produced at the anticipated 
day of restoration. 

My conversation with the Moor set me to musing on the 
fate of Boabdil. Never was surname more applicable than 
that bestowed upon him by his subjects, of El Zogoybi, or 
The Unlucky. His misfortunes began almost in his cradle, 
and ceased not even with his death. If ever he cherished the 
desire of leaving an honorable name on the historic page, how 
cruelly has he been defrauded of his hopes ! Who is there 
that has turned the least attention to the romantic history of 
the Moorish domination in Spain, without kindling with in- 
dignation at the alleged atrocities of Boabdil .? Who has not 
been touched with the woes of his lovely and gentle queen, 

[126] 






'I 









V::' 



'^; 










"^^ 



THK COURT OF LIONS 



THE ALHAMBRA 

subjected by him to a trial of life and death, on a false charge ? 
Who has not been shocked by his alleged murder of his sister 
and her two children, in a transport of passion ? Who has 
not felt his blood boil at the inhuman massacre of the gallant 
Abencerrages, thirty-six of whom, it is affirmed, he ordered 
to be beheaded in the Court of Lions ? All these charges 
have been reiterated in various forms ; they have passed into 
ballads, dramas, and romances, until they have taken too thor- 
ough possession of the public mind to be eradicated. There 
is not a foreigner of education that visits the Alhambra but 
asks for the fountain where the Abencerrages were beheaded, 
and gazes with horror at the grated gallery where the queen 
is said to have been confined ; not a peasant of the Vega or 
the Sierra but sings the story in rude couplets, to the accom- 
paniment of his guitar, while his hearers learn to execrate 
the very name of Boabdil. 

Never, however, was name more foully and unjustly slan- 
dered. I have examined all the authentic chronicles and let- 
ters written by Spanish authors contemporary with Boabdil ; 
some of whom were in the confidence of the Catholic sover- 
eigns, and actually present in the camp throughout the war. 
I have examined all the Arabian authorities I could get access 
to, through the medium of translation, and have found noth- 
ing to justify these dark and hateful accusations. The most 
of these tales may be traced to a work commonly called "The 
Civil Wars of Granada," containing a pretended history of 
the feuds of the Zegris and Abencerrages, during the last 
struggle of the Moorish empire. The work appeared origi- 
nally in Spanish, and professed to be translated from the 
Arabic by one Gines Perez de Hita, an inhabitant of Murcia. 
It has since passed into various languages, and Florian has 

[138] 



THE COURT OF LIONS 

taken from it much of the fable of his Gonzalvo of Cordova, 
It has thus, in a great measure, usurped the authority of real 
history, and is currently believed by the people, and especially 
the peasantry of Granada. The whole of it, however, is a 
mass of fiction, mingled with a few disfigured truths, which 
give it an air of veracity. It bears internal evidence of its 
falsity ; the manners and customs of the Moors being extrav- 
agantly misrepresented in it, and scenes depicted totally in- 
compatible with their habits and their faith, and which never 
could have been recorded by a Mohammedan writer. 

I confess there seems to me something almost criminal in 
the wilful perversions of this work : great latitude is undoubt- 
edly to be allowed to romantic fiction, but there are limits 
which it must not pass ; and the names of the distinguished 
dead, which belong to history, are no more to be calumniated 
than those of the illustrious living. One would have thought, 
too, that the unfortunate Boabdil had suffered enough for his 
justifiable hostility to the Spaniards, by being stripped of his 
kingdom, wdthout having his name thus wantonly traduced, 
and rendered a by-word and a theme of infamy in his native 
land, and in the very mansion of his fathers ! 



[ 129 ] 









i 










f 









,y>!^' 



^' 



^■\^'-J'X^»^ 



MEMENTOS OF BOABDIL 



WHILE my mind was still warm with the subject of 
the unfortunate Boabdil, I set forth to trace the 
mementos of him still existing in this scene of his 
sovereignty and misfortunes. In the Tower of Comares, 
immediately under the Hall of Ambassadors, are two vaulted 
rooms, separated by a narrow passage. These are said to 
have been the prisons of himself and his mother, the virtuous 
Ayxa la Horra, Indeed, no other part of the tower would 
have served for the purpose. The external walls of these 
chambers are of prodigious thickness, pierced with small 
windows secured by iron bars. A narrow stone gallery, with 
a low parapet, extends along three sides of the tower just 
below the windows, but at a considerable height from the 
ground. From this gallery, it is presumed, the queen lowered 

[130] 



M E M E N 1^ O S OF B O A B D I E 

her son with the scarfs of herself and her female attendants 
during the darkness of the night to the hillside, where some 
of his faithful adherents waited with fleet steeds to bear him 
to the mountains. 

Between three and four hundred years have elapsed, yet 
this scene of the drama remains almost unchanged. As I 
])aced the gallery, my imagination pictured the anxious queen 
leaning over the parapet, listening, with the throbbings of a 
mother's heart, to the last echoes of the horses' hoofs as her 
son scoured along the narrow valley of the Darro. 

I next sought the gate by which Boabdil made his last exit 
from the Alhambra, when about to surrender his capital and 
kingdom. With the melancholy caprice of a broken spirit, 
or perhaps with some superstitious feeling, he requested of 
the Catholic monarchs that no one afterwards might be per- 
mitted to pass through it. His prayer, according to ancient 
chronicles, was complied with, through the sympathy of 
Isabella, and the gate was walled up. 

I inquired for some time in vain for such a portal. At 
length my humble attendant, Mateo Ximenes, said it must 
be one closed up with stones, which, according to what he 
had heard from his father and grandfather, was the gateway 
by which King Chico had left the fortress. There was a 
mystery about it, and it had never been opened within the 
memory of the oldest inhabitant. 

He conducted me to the spot. The gateway is in the centre 
of what was once an immense pile, called the Tower of the 
Seven Floors (La Torre de los Siete Suelos). It is famous 
in the neighborhood as the scene of strange apparitions and 
Moorish enchantments. According to Swinburne, the traveller, 
it was originally the great gate of entrance. The antiquaries 



THE ALHAMBRA 

of Granada pronounce it the entrance to that quarter of the 
royal residence where the king's body-guards were stationed. 
It, therefore, might well form an immediate entrance and 
exit to the palace ; while the grand Gate of Justice served as 
the entrance of state to the fortress. When Boabdil sallied 
by this gate to descend to the Vega, where he was to sur- 
render the keys of the city to the Spanish sovereigns, he left 
his vizier, Aben Comixa, to receive at the Gate of Justice the 
detachment from the Christian army and the officers to whom 
the fortress was to be given up. 

The once redoubtable Tower of the Seven Floors is now 
a mere wreck, having been blown up with gunpowder by the 
French, when they abandoned the fortress. Great masses of 
the wall lie scattered about, buried in luxuriant herbage, or 
overshadowed by vines and fig-trees. The arch of the gate- 
way, though rent by the shock, still remains ; but the last wish 
of poor Boabdil has again, though unintentionally, been ful- 
filled, for the portal has been closed up by loose stones 
gathered from the ruins, and remains impassable. 

Mounting my horse, I followed up the route of the Moslem 
monarch from this place of his exit. Crossing the hill of 
Los Martyros, and keeping along the garden wall of a convent 
bearing the same name, I descended a rugged ravine beset 
by thickets of aloes and Indian figs, and lined with caves and 
hovels swarming with gypsies. The descent was so steep 
and broken that I was fain to alight and lead my horse. By 
this via dolorosa poor Boabdil took his sad departure to avoid 
passing through the city ; partly, perhaps, through unwilling- 
ness that its inhabitants should behold his humiliation ; but 
chiefly, in all probability, lest it might cause some popular agi- 
tation. For the last reason, undoubtedly, the detachment sent 
to take possession of the fortress ascended by the same route. 

[ 132] 



MEMENTOS OF BOABDIL 

Emerging from this rough ravine, so full of melancholy 
associations, and passing by the Puerta de los Molinos (the 
Gate of the Mills), I issued forth upon the public promenade 
called the Prado ; and pursuing the course of the Xenil, 
arrived at a small chapel, once a mosque, now the Hermitage 
of San Sebastian. Here, according to tradition, Boabdil sur- 
rendered the keys of Granada to King Ferdinand. I rode 
slowly thence across the Vega to a village where the family 
and household of the unhappy king awaited him, for he had 
sent them forward on the preceding night from the Alhambra, 
that his mother and wife might not participate in his personal 
humiliation, or be exposed to the gaze of the conquerors. 
Following on in the route of the melancholy band of royal 
exiles, I arrived at the foot of a chain of barren and dreary 
heights, forming the skirt of the Alpuxarra mountains. From 
the summit of one of these the unfortunate Boabdil took his 
last look at Granada ; it bears a name expressive of his sor- 
rows. La Cuesta de las Lagrimas (the Hill of Tears). Be- 
yond it, a sandy road winds across a rugged, cheerless waste, 
doubly dismal to the unhappy monarch, as it led to exile. 

I spurred my horse to the summit of a rock, where Boabdil 
uttered his last sorrowful exclamation, as he turned his eyes 
from taking a farewell gaze : it is still denominated El Ultimo 
Suspiro del Moro (the Last Sigh of the Moor). Who can 
wonder at his anguish at being expelled from such a kingdom 
and such an abode ? With the Alhambra he seemed to be 
yielding up all the honors of his line, and all the glories and 
delights of life. 

It was here, too, that his affliction was embittered by the 
reproach of his mother, Ayxa, who had so often assisted him 
in times of peril, and had vainly sought to instil into him her 
own resolute spirit. "' You do well," said she, " to weep as a 

[ ^33] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

woman over what you could not defend as a man " ; a speech 
savoring more of the pride of the princess than the tenderness 
of the mother. 

When this anecdote was related to Charles V, by Bishop 
Guevara, the emperor joined in the expression of scorn at the 
weakness of the wavering Boabdil. '" Had I been he, or he 
been I," said the haughty potentate, " I would rather have 
made this Alhambra my sepulchre than have lived without a 
kingdom in the Alpuxarra." How easy it is for those in 
power and prosperity to preach heroism to the vanquished ! 
How little can they understand that life itself may rise in 
value with the unfortunate, when naught but life remains ! 

Slowly descending the Hill of Tears, I let my horse take 
his own loitering gait back to Granada, while I turned the 
story of the unfortunate Boabdil over in my mind. In sum- 
moning up the particulars, I found the balance inclining in 
his favor. Throughout the whole of his brief, turbulent, and 
disastrous reign, he gives evidence of a mild and amiable 
character. He, in the first instance, won the hearts of his 
people by his affable and gracious manners ; he was always 
placable, and never inflicted any severity of punishment upon 
those who occasionally rebelled against him. He was per- 
sonally brave, but wanted moral courage ; and, in times of 
difficulty and perplexity, was wavering and irresolute. This 
feebleness of spirit hastened his downfall, while it deprived 
him of that heroic grace which would have given grandeur 
and dignity to his fate, and rendered him worthy of closing 
the splendid drama of the Moslem domination in Spain. 



[^34] 






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V,' 



^i'* ^ 



,AV l^*f/ftC *)l*ft. 



LOCAL TRADITIONS 



^HE common people of Spain have an Oriental passion 
for story-telling, and are fond of the marvellous. They 
will gather round the doors of their cottages in sum- 
mer evenings, or in the great cavernous chimney-corners of 
the voitas in the winter, and listen with insatiable delight to 
miraculous legends of saints, perilous adventures of travellers, 
and daring exploits of robbers and contr-abaiidistas. The wild 
and solitary character of the country, the imperfect diffusion 
of knowledge, the scarceness of general topics of conversa- 
tion, and the romantic adventurous life that every one leads 
in a land where travelling is yet in its primitive state, all con- 
tribute to cherish this love of oral narration, and to produce 
a strong infusion of the extravagant and incredible. There is 
no theme, however, more prevalent and popular than that of 
treasures buried by the Moors ; it pervades the whole country. 
In traversing the wild sierras, the scenes of ancient foray and 

[135] 



THE ALHAM BRA 

exploit, you cannot see a Moorish atalaya, or watch-tower, 
perched among the cHffs, or beethng above its rock-built vil- 
lage, but your muleteer, on being closely questioned, will sus- 
pend the smoking of his cigarrillo to tell some tale of Moslem 
gold buried beneath its foundations ; nor is there a ruined 
alcdzaj' in a city but has its golden tradition, handed down 
from generation to generation among the poor people of the 
neighborhood. 

These, like most popular fictions, have sprung from some 
scanty groundwork of fact. During the wars between Moor 
and Christian, which distracted this country for centuries, towns 
and castles were liable frequently and suddenly to change 
owners, and the inhabitants, during sieges and assaults, were 
fain to bury their money and jewels in the earth, or hide 
them in vaults and wells, as is often done at the present day 
in the despotic and belligerent countries of the East. At the 
time of the expulsion of the Moors also, many of them con- 
cealed their most precious effects, hoping that their exile would 
be but temporary, and that they would be enabled to return 
and retrieve their treasures at some future day. It is certain 
that from time to time hoards of gold and silver coin have 
been accidentally digged up, after a lapse of centuries, from 
among the ruins of Moorish fortresses and habitations ; and 
it requires but a few facts of the kind to give birth to a thou- 
sand fictions. 

The stories thus originating have generally something of 
an Oriental tinge, and are marked with that mixture of the 
Arabic and the Gothic which seems to me to characterize 
everything in Spain, and especially in its southern provinces. 
The hidden wealth is always laid under magic spell, and 
secured by charm and talisman. Sometimes it is guarded by 

[136] 



' ' 1 



"^•f 










•V.,.- 


I 




' 1 


(-' 



'^k 






..>'-TdB^5^''-^^- 




' ^ ■: 







, \ . 



^ 



RUINS OF OLD AQUEDUCT WHICH ONCE SUPPLIED THE 
AL HAM BRA WITH WATER 



THE ALHAMBRA 

uncouth monsters or fiery dragons, sometimes by enchanted 
Moors, who sit by it in armor, with drawn swords, but motion- 
less as statues, maintaining a sleepless watch for ages. 

The Alhambra of course, from the peculiar circumstances 
of its history, is a stronghold for popular fictions of the kind ; 
and various relics, digged up from time to time, have con- 
tributed to strengthen them. At one time an earthen vessel 
was found containing Moorish coins and the skeleton of a 
cock, which, according to the opinion of certain shrewd in- 
spectors, must have been buried alive. At another time a 
vessel was dug up containing a great scarabceiis or beetle of 
baked clay, covered with Arabic inscriptions, which was pro- 
nounced a prodigious amulet of occult virtues. In this way 
the wits of the ragged brood who inhabit the Alhambra have 
been set wool-gathering, until there is not a hall, nor tower, 
nor vault, of the old fortress, that has not been made the 
scene of some marvellous tradition. Having, I trust, in the 
preceding papers made the reader in some degree familiar 
with the localities of the Alhambra, I shall now launch out 
more largely into the wonderful legends connected with it, 
and which I have diligently wrought into shape and form, 
from various legendary scraps and hints picked up in the 
course of my perambulations, — in the same manner that an 
antiquary works out a regular historical document from a few 
scattered letters of an almost defaced inscription. 

If anything in these legends should shock the faith of the 
over-scrupulous reader, he must remember the nature of the 
place and make due allowances. . He must not expect here 
the same laws of probability that govern commonplace scenes 
and every-day life ; he must remember that he treads the halls 
of an enchanted palace, and that all is "haunted ground." 

[m8] 




^•'^-v 















THE HOUSE OF THE WEATHERCOCK 

^N THE brow of the lofty hill of the Albaicin, the 
highest part of Granada, and which rises from the 
narrow valley of the Darro, directly opposite to 
the Alhambra, stands all that is left of what was once a royal 
palace of the Moors. It has, in fact, fallen into such obscurity, 
that it cost me much trouble to find it, though aided in my 
researches by the sagacious and all-knowing Mateo Ximenes. 
This edifice has borne for centuries the name of "' The House 
of the Weathercock " (La Casa del Gallo de Viento), from 
a bronze figure on one of its turrets, in ancient times, of a 
warrior on horseback, and turning with every breeze. This 
weathercock was considered by the Moslems of Granada, a 
portentous talisman. According to some traditions, it bore 
an Arabic inscription which has been rendered into Spanish : 

[T39] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Dice el sabio Aben Habuz, 
Que asi se defiende el Anduluz. 

And into English : 

In this way, says Aben Habuz the Wise, 
Andaluz guards against surprise. 

This Aben Habuz, according to some of the Moorish 
chronicles, was a captain in the invading army of Taric, one 
of the conquerors of Spain, who left him as Alcayde of 
Granada. He is supposed to have intended this effigy as a 
perpetual warning to the Moslems of Andaluz, that, sur- 
rounded by foes, their safety depended upon their being 
always on their guard and ready for the field. 

Others, among whom is the Christian historian Marmol, 
affirm " Badis Aben Habus" to have been a Moorish Sultan 
of Granada, and that the weathercock was intended as a per- 
petual admonition of the instability of Moslem power, bear- 
ing the following words in Arabic : 

" Thus Ibn Habus al badise predicts Andalus shall one 
day vanish and pass away." 

Another version of this portentous inscription is given by 
a Moslem historian, on the authority of Sidi Hasan, a faquir 
who flourished about the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, and 
who was present at the taking down of the weathercock, when 
the old Kassaba was undergoing repairs. 

"I saw it," says the venerable faquir, "with my own 
eyes ; it was of a heptagonal shape, and had the following 
inscription in verse : 

" ' The palace at fair Granada presents a talisman.' 

" " The horseman, though a solid body, turns with every 
wind.' 



• THE HOUSE OE THE WEATHERCOCK 

" ' This to a wise man reveals a mystery. In a little while 
comes a calamity to ruin both the palace and its owner.' " 

In effect it was not long after this meddling with the por- 
tentous weathercock that the following event occurred. As 
old Muley Abul Hassan, the king of Granada, was seated 
under a sumptuous pavilion, reviewing his troops, who 
paraded before him in armor of polished steel and gorgeous 
silken robes, mounted on fleet steeds, and equipped with 
swords, spears, and shields embossed with gold and silver, — 
suddenly a tempest was seen hurrying from the southwest. 
In a little while black clouds overshadowed the heavens and 
burst forth with a deluge of rain. Torrents came roaring 
down from the mountains, bringing with them rocks and 
trees ; the Darro overflowed its banks ; mills were swept 
away, bridges destroyed, gardens laid waste ; the inundation 
rushed into the city, undermining houses, drowning their 
inhabitants, and overflowing even the square of the Great 
Mosque. The people rushed in affright to the mosques to 
implore the mercy of Allah, regarding this uproar of the 
elements as the harbinger of dreadful calamities ; and, indeed, 
according to the Arabian historian Al Makkari, it was but a 
type and prelude of the direful war which ended in the 
downfall of the Moslem kingdom of Granada, 

I have thus given historic authorities sufficient to show 
the portentous mysteries connected with the House of the 
Weathercock, and its talismanic horseman. 

I now proceed to relate still more surprising things about 
Aben Habuz and his palace ; for the truth of which, should 
any doubt be entertained, I refer the dubious reader to Mateo 
Ximenes and his fellow-historiographers of the Alhambra. 

[mi] 




(-•'C - '^ A .V ti,f't.V>s ri»rt* 



LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER 



N OLD times, many hundred years ago, there was a 
Moorish king named Aben Habuz, who reigned over 
the kingdom of Granada. He was a retired conqueror, 
that is to say, one who, having in his more youthful days led 
a life of constant foray and depredation, now that he was grown 
feeble and superannuated, "languished for repose," and de- 
sired nothing more than to live at peace with all the world, 
to husband his laurels, and to enjoy in quiet the possessions 
he had wrested from his neighbors. 

It so happened, however, that this most reasonable and 
pacific old monarch had young rivals to deal with ; princes 
full of his early passion for fame and fighting, and who 
were disposed to call him to account for the scores he had 
run up with their fathers. Certain distant districts of his 

1^42 \ 



lp:gend of the Arabian astrologer 

own territories, also, which during the days of his vigor he 
had treated with a high hand, were prone, now that he lan- 
guished for repose, to rise in rebellion and threaten to 
invest him in his capital. Thus he had foes on every side ; 
and as Granada is surrounded by wild and craggy mountains, 
which hide the approach of an enemy, the unfortunate Aben 
Habuz was kept in a constant state of vigilance and alarm, 
not knowing in what quarter hostilities might break out. 

It was in vain that he built watch-towers on the moun- 
tains, and stationed guards at every pass with orders to 
make fires by night and smoke by day, on the approach of 
an enemy. His alert foes, baffling every precaution, would 
break out of some unthought-of defile, ravage his lands 
beneath his very nose, and then make off with prisoners and 
booty to the mountains. Was ever peaceable and retired 
conqueror in a more uncomfortable predicament ? 

While Aben Habuz was harassed by these perplexities 
and molestations, an ancient Arabian physician arrived at 
his court. His gray beard descended to his girdle, and he 
had every mark of extreme age, yet he had travelled almost 
the whole way from Egypt on foot, with no other aid than 
a staff, marked with hieroglyphics. His fame had preceded 
him. His name was Ibrahim ; he was said to have lived 
ever since the days of Mahomet, and to be son of Abu Ayub, 
the last of the companions of the Prophet. He had, when 
a child, followed the conquering army of Amru into Egypt, 
where he had remained many years studying the dark sciences, 
and particularly magic, among the Egyptian priests. 

It was, moreover, said that he had found out the secret 
of prolonging life, by means of which he had arrived to the 
great age of upwards of two centuries, though, as he did not 

[143] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

discover the secret until well stricken in years, he could only 
perpetuate his gray hairs and wrinkles. 

This wonderful old man was honorably entertained by the 
king ; who, like most superannuated monarchs, began to take 
physicians into great favor. He would have assigned him an 
apartment in his palace, but the astrologer preferred a cave 
in the side of the hill which rises above the city of Granada, 
being the same on which the Alhambra has since been built. 
He caused the cave to be enlarged so as to form a spacious 
and lofty hall, with a circular hole at the top, through which, 
as through a well, he could see the heavens and behold the 
stars even at mid-day. The walls of this hall were covered 
with Egyptian hieroglyphics with cabalistic symbols, and with 
the figures of the stars in their signs. This hall he furnished 
with many implements, fabricated under his directions by cun- 
ning artificers of Granada, but the occult properties of which 
were known only to himself. 

In a little while the sage Ibrahim became the bosom coun- 
sellor of the king, who applied to him for advice in every 
emergency. Aben Habuz was once inveighing against the 
injustice of his neighbors, and bewailing the restless vigilance 
he had to observe to guard himself against their invasions ; 
when he had finished, the astrologer remained silent for a 
moment, and then replied, " Know, O king, that, when I was 
in Egypt, I beheld a great marvel devised by a pagan priestess 
of old. On a mountain, above the city of Borsa, and over- 
looking the great valley of the Nile, was a figure of a ram, 
and above it a figure of a cock, both of molten brass, and 
turning upon a pivot. Whenever the country was threatened 
with invasion, the ram would turn in the direction of the 
enemy, and the cock would crow ; upon this the inhabitants 

[144] 



LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER 

of the city knew of the danger, and of the quarter from which 
it was approaching, and could take timely means to guard 
against it." 

"Allah is great!" exclaimed the pacific Aben Habuz, 
" what a treasure would be such a ram to keep an eye upon 
these mountains around me ; and then such a cock, to crow 
in time of danger ! Allah is great ! how securely I might 
sleep in my palace with such sentinels on the top ! " 

The astrologer waited until the ecstasies of the king had 
subsided, and then proceeded : 

"After the victorious Amru (may he rest in peace !) had 
finished his conquest of Egypt, I remained among the priests 
of the land, studying the rites and ceremonies of their idola- 
trous faith, and seeking to make myself master of the hidden 
knowledge for which they are renowned. I was one day 
seated on the banks of the Nile, conversing with an ancient 
priest, when he pointed to the mighty pyramids which rose 
like mountains out of the neighboring desert. ' All that we 
can teach thee,' said he, " is nothing to the knowledge locked 
up in those mighty piles. In the centre of the central pyra- 
mid is a sepulchral chamber, in which is enclosed the mummy 
of the high-priest who aided in rearing that stupendous pile ; 
and with him is buried a wondrous book of knowledge, con- 
taining all the secrets of magic and art. This book was given 
to Adam after his fall, and was handed down from genera- 
tion to generation to King Solomon the Wise, and by its aid 
he built the Temple of Jerusalem, How it came into the 
possession of the builder of the pyramids is known to Him 
alone who knows all things.' 

" When I heard these words of the Egyptian priest, my 
heart burned to get possession of that book. I could command 

[I4S] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

the services of many of the soldiers of our conquering army, 
and of a number of the native Egyptians : with these I set 
to work, and pierced the solid mass of the pyramid, until, 
after great toil, I came upon one of its interior and hidden 
passages. Following this up, and threading a fearful laby- 
rinth, I penetrated into the very heart of the pyramids, even 
to the sepulchral chamber, where the mummy of the high- 
priest had lain for ages. I broke through the outer cases of 
the mummy, unfolded its many wrappers and bandages, and 
at length found the precious volume on its bosom. I seized 
it with a trembling hand, and groped my way out of the pyra- 
mid, leaving the mummy in its dark and silent sepulchre, 
there to await the final day of resurrection and judgment." 

" Son of Abu Ayub," exclaimed Aben Habuz, " thou hast 
been a great traveller, and seen marvellous things ; but of what 
avail to me is the secret of the pyramid, and the volume of 
knowledge of the wise Solomon ? " 

"This it is, O king! By the study of that book I am in- 
structed in all magic arts, and can command the assistance 
of genii to accomplish my plans. The mystery of the Talis- 
man of Borsa is therefore familiar to me, and such a talisman 
can I make, nay, one of greater virtues." 

" O wise son of Abu Ayub," cried Aben Habuz, "better 
were such a talisman than all the watch-towers on the hills, 
and sentinels upon the borders. Give me such a safeguard, 
and the riches of my treasury are at thy command." 

The astrologer immediately set to work to gratify the wishes 
of the monarch. He caused a great tower to be erected upon 
the top of the royal palace, which stood on the brow of the 
hill of the Albaicin. The tower was built of stones brought 
from Egypt, and taken, it is said, from one of the pyramids. 

[146 J 



LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOCxER 

In the upper part of the tower was a circular hall, with win- 
dows looking towards every point of the compass, and before 
each window was a table, on which was arranged, as on a 
chess-board, a mimic army of horse and foot, with the effigy 
of the potentate that ruled in that direction, all carved of 
wood. To each of these tables there was a small lance, on 
which were engraved certain characters. This hall was kept 
constantly closed, by a gate of brass, with a great lock of 
steel, the key of which was in possession of the king. 

On the top of the tower was a bronze figure of a Moorish 
horseman, fixed on a pivot, with a shield on one arm, and his 
lance elevated perpendicularly. The face of this horseman 
was towards the city, as if keeping guard over it ; but if any 
foe were at hand, the figure would turn in that direction, and 
would level the lance as if for action. 

When this talisman was finished, Aben Habuz was all 
impatient to try its virtues, and longed as ardently for an in- 
vasion as he had ever sighed after repose. His desire was 
soon gratified. Tidings were brought, early one morning, by 
the sentinel appointed to watch the tower, that the face of the 
bronze horseman was turned towards the mountains of Elvira, 
and that his lance pointed directly against the Pass of Lope. 

" Let the drums and trumpets sound to arms, and all 
Granada be put on the alert," said Aben Habuz. 

" O king," said the astrologer, " let not your city be dis- 
quieted, nor your warriors called to arms ; we need no aid of 
force to deliver you from your enemies. Dismiss your attend- 
ants, and let us proceed alone to the secret hall of the tower." 

The ancient Aben Habuz mounted the staircase of the 
tower, leaning on the arm of the still more ancient Ibrahim. 
They unlocked the brazen door and entered. The window 

[U7] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

that looked towards the Pass of Lope was open. " In this 
direction," said the astrologer, '" lies the danger; approach. 
O king, and behold the mystery of the table." 

King Aben Habuz approached the seeming chess-board, 
on which were arranged the small wooden effigies, when, to 
his surprise, he perceived that they were all in motion. The 
horses pranced and curveted, the warriors brandished their 
weapons, and there was a faint sound of drums and trumpets, 
and the clang of arms, and neighing of steeds ; but all no 
louder, nor more distinct, than the hum of the bee, or the 
summer-fly, in the drowsy ear of him who lies at noontide 
in the shade. 

" Behold, O king," said the astrologer, "a proof that thy 
enemies are even now in the field. They must be advancing 
through yonder mountains, by the Pass of Lope. Would you 
produce a panic and confusion amongst them, and cause them 
to retreat without loss of life, strike these effigies with the 
but-end of this magic lance ; would you cause bloody feud 
and carnage, strike with the point." 

A livid streak passed across the countenance of Aben 
Habuz ; he seized the lance with trembling eagerness ; his 
gray beard wagged with exultation as he tottered toward the 
table : "' Son of Abu Ayub," exclaimed he, in chuckling tone, 
" I think we will have a little blood ! " 

So saying, he thrust the magic lance into some of the pigmy 
effigies, and belabored others with the but-end, upon which 
the former fell as dead upon the board, and the rest turning 
upon each other, began, pell-mell, a chance-medley fight. 

It was with difficulty the astrologer could stay the hand 
of the most pacific of monarchs, and prevent him from 
absolutely exterminating his foes ; at length he prevailed 

[148] 







A COURT OF THE GENERALIFE 



THE ALHAMBRA 

upon him to leave the tower, and to send out scouts to the 
mountains by the Pass of Lope. 

They returned with the intelUgence that a Christian army 
had advanced through the heart of the Sierra, almost within 
sight of Granada, where a dissension had broken out among 
them ; they had turned their weapons against each other, and 
after much slaughter had retreated over the border. 

Aben Habuz was transported with joy on thus proving the 
efficacy of the talisman. " At length," said he, " I shall lead 
a life of tranquillity, and have all my enemies in my power. 
O wise son of Abu Ayub, what can I bestow on thee in 
reward for such a blessing ? ' ' 

" The wants of an old man and a philosopher, O king, are 
few and simple ; grant me but the means of fitting up my 
cave as a suitable hermitage, and I am content." 

""How noble is the moderation of the truly wise ! " ex- 
claimed Aben Habuz, secretly pleased at the cheapness of 
the recompense. He summoned his treasurer, and bade him 
dispense whatever sums might be required by Ibrahim to 
complete and furnish his hermitage. 

The astrologer now gave orders to have various chambers 
hewn out of the solid rock, so as to form ranges of apart- 
ments connected with his astrological hall ; these he caused 
to be furnished with luxurious ottomans and divans, and the 
walls to be hung with the richest silks of Damascus. " I am 
an old man," said he, "and can no longer rest my bones on 
stone couches, and these damp walls require covering." 

He had baths too constructed, and provided with all kinds 
of perfumes and aromatic oils. "' For a bath," said he, " is 
necessary to counteract the rigidity of age, and to restore 
freshness and suppleness to the frame withered by study." 



LKGKNI) OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER 

He caused the apartments to be hung with innumerable 
silver and crystal lamps, which he filled with a fragrant oil 
prepared according to a receipt discovered by him in the 
tombs of Egypt. This oil was perpetual in its nature, and 
diffused a soft radiance like the tempered light of day. " The 
light of the sun," said he, " is too gairish and violent for the 
eyes of an old man, and the light of the lamp is more congenial 
to the studies of a philosopher." 

The treasurer of King Aben Habuz groaned at the sums 
daily demanded to fit up this hermitage, and he carried his 
complaints to the king. The royal word, however, had been 
given ; Aben Habuz shrugged his shoulders : ' " We must 
have patience," said he; "this old man has taken his idea 
of a philosophic retreat from the interior of the pyramids, 
and of the vast ruins of Eg}'pt ; but all things have an end, 
and so will the furnishing of his cavern." The king was in 
the right ; the hermitage was at length complete, and formed 
a sumptuous subterranean palace. 

While the philosophic Ibrahim passed his time in his her- 
mitage, the pacific Aben Habuz carried on furious campaigns 
in efifigy in his tower. It was a glorious thing for an old 
man, like himself, of quiet habits, to have war made easy, 
and to be enabled to amuse himself in his chamber by brushing 
away whole armies like so many swarms of flies. 

For a time he rioted in the indulgence of his humors, 
and even taunted and insulted his neighbors, to induce them 
to make incursions ; but by degrees they grew wary from 
repeated disasters, until no one ventured to invade his ter- 
ritories. For many months the bronze horseman remained 
on the peace establishment, with his lance elevated in the 
air ; and the worthy old monarch began to repine at the 

[151] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

want of his accustomed sport, and to grow peevish at his 
monotonous tranquiUity. 

At length, one day, the tahsmanic horseman veered sud- 
denly round, and lowering his lance, made a dead point to- 
wards the mountains of Guadix. Aben Habuz hastened to 
his tower, but the magic table in that direction remained 
quiet : not a single warrior was in motion. Perplexed at the 
circumstance, he sent forth a troop of horse to scour the 
mountains and reconnoitre. They returned after three days' 
absence. 

" We have searched every mountain pass," said they, "but 
not a helm nor spear was stirring. All that we have found 
in the course of our foray, was a Christian damsel of surpass- 
ing beauty, sleeping at noontide beside a fountain, whom we 
have brought away captive." 

"A damsel of surpassing beauty! " exclaimed Aben Habuz, 
his eyes gleaming with animation ; "let her be conducted 
into my presence." 

The beautiful damsel was accordingly conducted into his 
presence. She was arrayed with all the luxury of ornament 
that had prevailed among the Gothic Spaniards at the time 
of the Arabian conquest. Pearls of dazzling whiteness were 
entwined with her raven tresses ; and jewels sparkled on her 
forehead, rivalling the lustre of her eyes. Around her neck 
was a golden chain, to which was suspended a silver lyre, 
which hung by her side. 

The flashes of her dark eye were like sparks of fire on the 
withered yet combustible heart of Aben Habuz. "Fairest of 
women," cried he, " who and what art thou ? " 

" The daughter of one of the Gothic princes, who but 
lately ruled over this land. The armies of my father have 



LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER 

been destroyed, as if by magic, among these mountains ; he 
has been driven into exile, and his daughter is a captive." 

"Beware, O king!" whispered Ibrahim, "this maybe one 
of those northern sorceresses of whom we have heard, who 
assume the most seductive forms to beguile the unwary. Me- 
thinks I read witchcraft in her eye, and sorcery in every 
movement. Doubtless this is the enemy pointed out by the 
talisman." 

" Son of Abu Ayub," replied the king, " thou art a wise 
man, I grant, a conjurer for aught I know ; but thou art little 
versed in the ways of woman. As to this damsel, I see no 
harm in her ; she is fair to look upon, and finds favor in 
my eyes." 

Further remonstrances of the astrologer only provoked a 
more peremptoiy reply from the monarch, and they parted 
in high displeasure. The sage shut himself up in his her- 
mitage ; ere he departed, however, he gave the king one 
more warning to beware of his dangerous captive. But where 
is the old man in love that will listen to counsel ? His only 
study was how to render himself amiable in the eyes of the 
Gothic beauty. He had not youth to recommend him, it is 
true, but then he had riches ; and when a lover is old, he is 
generally generous. The shops of Granada were ransacked 
for the most precious merchandise of the East ; silks, jewels, 
precious gems, exquisite perfumes, all that Asia and Africa 
yielded that was rich and rare, were lavished upon the prin- 
cess. All kinds of spectacles and festivities were devised for 
her entertainment ; minstrelsy, dancing, tournaments, bull- 
fights ; — Granada for a time was a scene of perpetual pag- 
eant. The Gothic princess regarded all this splendor with 
the air of one accustomed to magnificence. She received 

[153] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

everything as a homage due to her rank, or rather to her 
beauty ; for beauty is more lofty in its exactions even than 
rank. Nay, she seemed to take a secret pleasure in exciting 
the monarch to expenses that made his treasury shrink, and 
then treating his extravagant generosity as a mere matter of 
course. With all his assiduity and munificence, also, the 
venerable lover could not flatter himself that he had made 
any impression on her heart. She never frowned on him, it 
is true, but then she never smiled. Whenever he began to 
plead his love, she struck her silver lyre. There was a mystic 
charm in the sound. In an instant the monarch began to 
nod ; a drowsiness stole over him, and he gradually sank into 
a sleep. 

At length a danger burst on the head of Aben Habuz, 
against which his talisman yielded him no warning. An in- 
surrection broke out in his very capital ; his palace was sur- 
rounded by an armed rabble, who menaced his life and the 
life of the Christian damsel. A spark of his ancient warlike 
spirit was awakened in the breast of the monarch. At the 
head of a handful of his guards he sallied forth, put the rebels 
to flight, and crushed the insurrection in the bud. 

When quiet was again restored, he sought the astrologer, 
who still remained shut up in his hermitage. 

Aben Habuz approached him with a conciliatory tone. 
"' O wise son of Abu Ayub," said he, "well didst thou pre- 
dict dangers to me from this captive beauty : tell me then, 
thou who art so quick at foreseeing peril, what I should do 
to avert it." 

" Put from thee the infidel damsel who is the cause." 

" Sooner would I part with my kingdom," cried Aben 
Habuz. 

[154] 



LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER 

" Thou art in danger of losing both," repHed the astrologer. 

"Be not harsh and angry, O most profound of philoso- 
phers ; consider the double distress of a monarch and a lover, 
and devise some means of protecting me from the evils by 
which I am menaced. I care not for grandeur, I care not 
for power, I languish only for repose ; would that I had some 
quiet retreat where I might take refuge from the world, and all 
its cares, and pomps, and troubles, and devote the remainder 
of my days to tranquillity and love." 

The astrologer regarded him for a moment from under 
his bushy eyebrows. 

" And what wouldst thou give, if I could provide thee such 
a retreat ? " 

" Thou shouldst name thy own reward ; and whatever it 
might be, if within the scope of my power, as my soul 
liveth, it should be thine." 

" Thou hast heard, O king, of the garden of I rem, one of 
the prodigies of Arabia the happy." 

" I have heard of that garden ; it is recorded in the 
Koran, even in the chapter entitled ' The Dawn of Day.' 
I have, moreover, heard marvellous things related of it by 
pilgfims who had been to Mecca ; but I considered them 
wild fables, such as travellers are wont to tell who have 
visited remote countries." 

" Discredit not, O king, the tales of travellers," rejoined 
the astrologer, gravely, "for they contain precious rarities 
of knov/ledge brought from the ends of the earth. As to 
the palace and garden of I rem, what is generally told of 
them is true ; I have seen them with mine own eyes ; — 
listen to my adventure, for it has a bearing upon the 
object of your request. 

['55] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

"In my younger days, when a mere Arab of the desert, 
I tended my father's camels. In traversing the desert of 
Aden, one of them strayed from the rest and was lost. 
I searched after it for several days, but in vain, until, 
wearied and faint, I laid myself down at noontide, and 
slept under a palm-tree by the side of a scanty well. 
When I awoke I found myself at the gate of a city. 
I entered, and beheld noble streets, and squares, and market- 
places ; but all were silent and without an inhabitant. I 
wandered on until I came to a sumptuous palace, with a 
garden adorned with fountains and fish-ponds, and groves 
and flowers, and orchards laden with delicious fruit ; but 
still no one was to be seen. Upon which, appalled at this 
loneliness, I hastened to depart ; and, after issuing forth at 
the gate of the city, I turned to look upon the place, but it 
was no longer to be seen ; nothing but the silent desert 
extended before my eyes. 

" In the neighborhood I met with an aged dervise, 
learned in the traditions and secrets of the land, and related 
to him what had befallen me. 'This,' said he, 'is the far- 
famed garden of I rem, one of the wonders of the desert. 
It only appears at times to some wanderer like thyself, 
gladdening him with the sight of towers and palaces and 
garden-walls overhung with richly-laden fruit trees, and then 
vanishes, leaving nothing but a lonely desert. And this 
is the story of it. In old times, when this country was in- 
habited by the Addites, King Sheddad, the son of Ad, 
the great-grandson of Noah, founded here a splendid city. 
When it was finished, and he saw its grandeur, his heart 
was puffed up with pride and arrogance, and he determined 
to build a royal palace, with gardens which should rival all 

[156] 



LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER 

related in the Koran of the celestial paradise. But the curse 
of heaven fell upon him for his presumption. He and his 
subjects were swept from the earth, and his splendid city 
and palace, and gardens, were laid under a perpetual spell, 
which hides them from human sight, excepting that they are 
seen at intervals, by way of keeping his sin in perpetual 
remembrance.' 

" This story, O king, and the wonders I had seen, ever 
dwelt in my mind ; and in after-years, when I had been in 
Eg^-pt, and was possessed of the book of knowledge of 
Solomon the Wise, I determined to return and revisit the 
garden of Irem. I did so, and found it revealed to my 
instructed sight. I took possession of the palace of Shed- 
dad, and passed several days in his mock paradise. The 
genii who watch over the place were obedient to my magic 
power, and revealed to me the spells by which the whole 
garden had been, as it were, conjured into existence, and 
by which it was rendered invisible. Such a palace and 
garden, O king, can I make for thee, even here, on the 
mountain above thy city. Do I not know all the secret 
spells ? And am I not in possession of the book of knowl- 
edge of Solomon the Wise ? " 

" O wise son of Abu Ayub ! " exclaimed Aben Habuz, 
trembling with eagerness, "thou art a traveller indeed, 
and hast seen and learned marvellous things ! Contrive 
me such a paradise, and ask any reward, even to the half 
of my kingdom." 

"Alas!" replied the other, "thou knowest I am an old 
man, and a philosopher, and easily satisfied ; all the reward 
I ask is the first beast of burden, with its load, which shall 
enter the magic portal of the palace." 

[157] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The monarch gladly agreed to so moderate a stipulation, 
and the astrologer began his work. On the summit of the 
hill, immediately above his subterranean hermitage, he 
caused a great gateway or barbican to be erected, opening 
through the centre of a strong tower. 

There was an outer vestibule or porch, with a lofty arch, 
and within it a portal secured by massive gates. On the key- 
stone of the portal the astrologer, with his own hand, wrought 
the figure of a huge key ; and on the keystone of the outer 
arch of the vestibule, which was loftier than that of the portal, 
he carved a gigantic hand. These were potent talismans, over 
which he repeated many sentences in an unknown tongue. 

When this gateway was finished, he shut himself up for 
two days in his astrological hall, engaged in secret incan- 
tations ; on the third he ascended the hill, and passed the 
whole day on its summit. At a late hour of the night he 
came down, and presented himself before Aben Habuz. 
"At length, O king," said he, "my labor is accomplished. 
On the summit of the hill stands one of the most delectable 
palaces that ever the head of man devised, or the heart of 
man desired. It contains sumptuous halls and galleries, 
delicious gardens, cool fountains, and fragrant baths ; in a 
word, the whole mountain is converted into a paradise. 
Like the garden of Irem, it is protected by a mighty 
charm, which hides it from the view and search of mortals, 
excepting such as possess the secret of its talismans." 

" Enough ! " cried Aben Habuz, joyfully, " to-morrow- 
morning with the first light we will ascend and take pos- 
session." The happy monarch slept but little that night. 
Scarcely had the rays of the sun begun to play about the 
snowy summit of the Sierra Nevada, when he mounted his 

[^58] 



LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER 

steed, and, accompanied only by a few chosen attendants, 
ascended a steep and narrow road leading up the hill. 
Beside him, on a white palfrey, rode the Gothic princess, 
her whole dress sparkling with jewels, while round her 
neck was suspended her silver lyre. The astrologer walked 
on the other side of the king, assisting his steps with his 
hieroglyphic staff, for he never mounted steed of any kind. 

Aben Habuz looked to see the towers of the palace 
brightening above him, and the embowered terraces of its 
gardens stretching along the heights ; but as yet nothing of 
the kind was to be descried. " That is the mystery and safe- 
guard of the place," said the astrologer, " nothing can be 
discerned until you have passed the spell-bound gateway, 
and been put in possession of the place." 

As they approached the gateway, the astrologer paused, 
and pointed out to the king the mystic hand and key 
carved upon the portal of the arch. " These," said he, 
" are the talismans which guard the entrance to this para- 
dise. Until yonder hand shall reach down and seize that 
key, neither mortal power nor magic artifice can prevail 
against the lord of this mountain." 

While Aben Habuz was gazing, with open mouth and 
silent wonder, at these mystic talismans, the palfrey of the 
princess proceeded, and bore her in at the portal, to the 
very centre of the barbican. 

"Behold," cried the astrologer, "my promised reward; 
the first animal with its burden which should enter the 
magic gateway." 

Aben Habuz smiled at what he considered a pleasantry 
of the ancient man ; but when he found him to be in 
earnest, his gray beard trembled with indignation. 

[159] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

"Son of Abu Ayub," said he, sternly, "what equivoca- 
tion is this ? Thou knowest the meaning of my promise : 
the first beast of burden with its load, that should enter 
this portal. Take the strongest mule in my stables, load 
it with the most precious things of my treasury, and it is 
thine ; but dare not raise thy thoughts to her who is the 
delight of my heart." 

" What need I of wealth } " cried the astrologer, scornfully ; 
" have I not the book of knowledge of Solomon the Wise, 
and through it the command of the secret treasures of the 
earth } The princess is mine by right ; thy royal word is 
pledged ; I claim her as my own." 

The princess looked down haughtily from her palfrey, and 
a light smile of scorn curled her rosy lip at this dispute be- 
tween two gray-beards for the possession of youth and beauty. 
The wrath of the monarch got the better of his discretion. 
" Base son of the desert," cried he, " thou mayst be master 
of many arts, but know me for thy master, and presume not 
to juggle with thy king." 

"My master! my king!" echoed the astrologer, — "the 
monarch of a mole-hill to claim sway over him who possesses 
the talismans of Solomon ! Farewell, Aben Habuz, reign over 
thy petty kingdom, and revel in thy paradise of fools ; for 
me, I will laugh at thee in my philosophic retirement." 

So saying, he seized the bridle of the palfrey, smote the 
earth with his staff, and sank with the Gothic princess 
through the centre of the barbican. The earth closed over 
them, and no trace remained of the opening by which they 
had descended. 

Aben Habuz was struck dumb for a time with astonish- 
ment. Recovering himself, he ordered a thousand workmen 

[i6o] 



LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER 

to dig, with pickaxe and spade, into the ground where the 
astrologer had disappeared. They digged and digged, but in 
vain ; the flinty bosom of the hill resisted their implements ; 
or if they did penetrate a little way, the earth filled in again 
as fast as they threw it out. Aben Habuz sought the mouth 
of the cavern at the foot of the hill, leading to the subter- 
ranean palace of the astrologer ; but it was nowhere to be 
found. Where once had been an entrance, was a solid surface 
of primeval rock. With the disappearance of Ibrahim ceased 
the benefit of his talismans. The bronze horseman remained 
fixed, with his face turned toward the hill, and his spear 
pointed to the spot where the astrologer had descended, as 
if there still lurked the deadliest foe of Aben Habuz. 

From time to time the sound of music, and the tones of a 
female voice, could be faintly heard from the bosom of the 
hill ; and a peasant one day brought word to the king, that 
in the preceding night he had found a fissure in the rock, 
by which he had crept in, until he looked down into a sub- 
terranean hall, in which sat the astrologer, on a magnificent 
divan, slumbering and nodding to the silver lyre of the prin- 
cess, which seemed to hold a magic sway over his senses. 

Aben Habuz sought the fissure in the rock, but it was 
again closed. He renewed the attempt to unearth his rival, 
but all in vain. The spell of the hand and key was too potent 
to be counteracted by human power. As to the summit of 
the mountain, the site of the promised palace and garden, it 
remained a naked waste ; either the boasted elysium was 
hidden from sight by enchantment, or was a mere fable of 
the astrologer. The world charitably supposed the latter, and 
some used to call the place "The King's Folly"; while 
others named it " The Fool's Paradise." 

[i6i] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

To add to the chagrin of Aben Habuz, the neighbors whom 
he had defied and taunted, and cut up at his leisure while 
master of the talismanic horseman, finding him no longer 
protected by magic spell, made inroads into his territories 
from all sides, and the remainder of the life of the most 
pacific of monarchs was a series of turmoils. 

At length Aben Habuz died, and was buried. Ages have 
since rolled away. The Alhambra has been built on the event- 
ful mountain, and in some measure realizes the fabled delights 
of the garden of I rem. The spell-bound gateway still exists 
entire, protected no doubt by the mystic hand and key, and 
now forms the Gate of Justice, the grand entrance to the for- 
tress. Under that gateway, it is said, the old astrologer remains 
in his subterranean hall, nodding on his divan, lulled by the 
silver lyre of the princess. 

The old invalid sentinels who mount guard at the gate 
hear the strains occasionally in the summer nights ; and, 
yielding to their soporific power, doze quietly at their posts. 
Nay, so drowsy an influence pervades the place, that even 
those who watch by day may generally be seen nodding on 
the stone benches of the barbican, or sleeping under the neigh- 
boring trees ; so that in fact it is the drowsiest military post 
in all Christendom. All this, say the ancient legends, will 
endure from age to age. The princess will remain captive 
to the astrologer, and the astrologer bound up in magic slum- 
ber by the princess, until the last day, unless the mystic hand 
shall grasp the fated key, and dispel the whole charm of this 
enchanted mountain. 



[162] 




VISITORS TO THE ALHAMBRA 



FOR nearly three months had I enjoyed undisturbed my 
dream of sovereignty in the Alhambra, — a longer term 
of quiet than had been the lot of many of my prede- 
cessors. During this lapse of time the progress of the season 
had wrought the usual change. On my arrival I had found 
everything in the freshness of May ; the foliage of the trees 
was still tender and transparent ; the pomegranate had not 
yet shed its brilliant crimson blossoms ; the orchards of the 
Xenil and the Darro were in full bloom ; the rocks were hung 
with wild flowers, and Granada seemed completely surrounded 
by a wilderness of roses ; among which innumerable nightin- 
gales sang, not merely in the night, but all day long. 

Now the advance of summer had withered the rose and 
silenced the nightingale, and the distant country began to 
look parched and sunburnt, though a perennial verdure 
reigned immediately round the city and in the deep narrow- 
valleys at the foot of the snow-capped mountains. 

[163] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The Alhambra possesses retreats graduated to the heat of 
the weather, among which the most peculiar is the ahnost 
subterranean apartment of the baths. This still retains its 
ancient Oriental character, though stamped with the touching 
traces of decline. At the entrance, opening into a small court 
formerly adorned with flowers, is a hall, moderate in size, but 
light and graceful in architecture. It is overlooked by a small 
gallery supported by marble pillars and Morisco arches. An 
alabaster fountain in the centre of the pavement still throws 
up a jet of water to cool the place. On each side are deep 
alcoves with raised platforms, where the bathers, after their 
ablutions, reclined on cushions, soothed to voluptuous repose 
by the fragrance of the perfumed air and the notes of soft 
music from the gallery. Beyond this hall are the interior 
chambers, still more retired ; the smictinn saiictormn of female 
privacy ; for here the beauties of the Harem indulged in the 
luxury of the baths. A soft mysterious light reigns through 
the place, admitted through small apertures {bimbrcras) in 
the vaulted ceiling. The traces of ancient elegance are still 
to be seen, and the alabaster baths in which the sultans once 
reclined. The prevailing obscurity and silence have made 
these vaults a favorite resort of bats, who nestle during the 
day in the dark nooks and corners, and on being disturbed, 
flit mysteriously about the twilight chambers, heightening, in 
an indescribable degree, their air of desertion and decay. 

In this cool and elegant, though dilapidated retreat, which had 
the freshness and seclusion of a grotto, I passed the sultiy hours 
of the day as summer advanced, emerging towards sunset ; and 
bathing, or rather swimming, at night in the great reservoir of 
the main court. In this way I was enabled in a measure to 
counteract the relaxing and enervating influence of the climate. 

[164] 



■M>^^ 















\"l 









.<*> 



'•< V ■■■^l'^f:t^'<iWm^f>: 



■ V 






fyoP.'^.-^fV /^Vt.f\iC PiLACi- 



THE SANCTUM SANCTORUIM 



THE ALHAMBRA 

My dream of absolute sovereignty, however, came at length 
to an end. I was roused one morning by the report of fire- 
arms, which reverberated among the towers as if the castle 
had been taken by surprise. On sallying forth, I found an 
old cavalier with a number of domestics in possession of the 
Hall of the Ambassadors. He was an ancient count who had 
come up from his palace in Granada to pass a short time in 
the Alhambra for the benefit of purer air ; and who, being 
a veteran and inveterate sportsman, was endeavoring to get 
an appetite for his breakfast by shooting at swallows from 
the balconies. It was a harmless amusement ; for though, by 
the alertness of his attendants in loading his pieces, he was 
enabled to keep up a brisk fire, I could not accuse him 
of the death of a single swallow. Nay, the birds themselves 
seemed to enjoy the sport, and to deride his want of skill, 
skimming in circles close to the balconies, and twittering 
as they darted by. 

The arrival of this old gentleman changed essentially the 
aspect of affairs, but caused no jealousy nor collision. We 
tacitly shared the empire between us, like the last kings of 
Granada, excepting that we maintained a most amicable alli- 
ance. He reigned absolute over the Court of the Lions and 
its adjacent halls, while I maintained peaceful possession of 
the regions of the bath and the little garden of Lindaraxa. 
We took our meals together under the arcades of the court, 
where the fountains cooled the air, and bubbling rills ran 
along the channels of the marble pavement. 

In the evenings a domestic circle would gather about the 
worthy old cavalier. The countess, his wife by a second mar- 
riage, would come up from the city accompanied by her step- 
daughter Carmen, an only child, a charming little being, still 

[i66] 



VISITORS TO THE ALHAMBRA 

in her girlish years. Then there were always some of his 
official dependants, his chaplain, his lawyer, his secretary, 
his steward, and other officers and agents of his extensive 
possessions, who brought him up the news or gossip of the 
city, and formed his evening party of trcsillo or ombre. Thus 
he held a kind of domestic court, where each one paid him 
deference, and sought to contribute to his amusement, with- 
out, however, any appearance of servility, or any sacrifice of 
self-respect. In fact, nothing of the kind was exacted by the 
demeanor of the count ; for whatever may be said of Spanish 
pride, it rarely chills or constrains the intercourse of social 
or domestic life. Among no people are the relations between 
kindred more unreserved and cordial, or between superior 
and dependant more free from haughtiness on the one side, 
and obsequiousness on the other. In these respects there 
still remains in Spanish life, especially in the provinces, much 
of the vaunted simplicity of the olden time. 

The most interesting member of this family group, in my 
eyes, was the daughter of the count, the lovely little Carmen. 
She was but about sixteen years of age, and appeared to be 
considered a mere child, though the idol of the family, going 
generally by the childlike but endearing appellation of La 
Nina. Her form had not yet attained full maturity and de- 
velopment, but possessed already the exquisite symmetiy and 
pliant grace so prevalent in this country. Her blue eyes, fair 
complexion, and light hair were unusual in Andalusia, and 
gave a mildness and gentleness to her demeanor in contrast 
to the usual fire of Spanish beauty, but in unison with the 
guileless and confiding innocence of her manners. She had 
at the same time the innate aptness and versatility of her 
fascinating countrywomen. Whatever she undertook to do 

[167] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

she did well and apparently without effort. She sang, played 
the guitar and other instruments, and danced the picturesque 
dances of her country to admiration, but never seemed to 
seek admiration. Everything was spontaneous, prompted by 
her own gay spirits and happy temper. 

The presence of this fascinating little being spread a new 
charm about the Alhambra, and seemed to be in unison with 
the place. While the count and countess, with the chaplain 
or secretary, were playing their game of tresillo under the 
vestibule of the Court of Lions, she, attended by Dolores, 
who acted as her maid of honor, would sit by one of the 
fountains, and, accompanying herself on the guitar, would 
sing some of those popular romances which abound in Spain, 
or, what was still more to my taste, some traditional ballad 
about the Moors. 

Never shall I think of the Alhambra without remembering 
this lovely little being, sporting in happy and innocent girl- 
hood in its marble halls, dancing to the sound of the Moorish 
castanets, or mingling the silver warbling of her voice with 
the music of its fountains. 



[i68j 




((iii«(i«Hi"« „ii!i;'i?^?iiJi^ 


















THE GENERALIFE 



TT TTIGH above the Alhambra, on the breast of the 
^^ mountain, amidst embowered gardens and stately 
terraces, rise the lofty towers and white walls of 



I 



the Generalife ; a fairy palace, full of storied recollections. 
Here are still to be seen the famous cypresses of enormous 
size which flourished in the time of the Moors, and which 
tradition has connected with the fabulous story of Boabdil 
and his sultana. 

Here are preserved the portraits of many who figured in 
the romantic drama of the Conquest. Ferdinand and Isabella, 
Ponce de Leon, the gallant Marquis of Cadiz, and Garcilaso 
de la Vega, who slew in desperate fight Tarfe the Moor, a 
champion of Herculean strength. Here too hangs a portrait 
which has long passed for that of the unfortunate Boabdil, 
but which is said to be that of Aben Hud, the Moorish king 

[169] 



THE AL HAM BRA 

from whom descended the princes of Almeria. From one 
of these princes, who joined the standard of Ferdinand and 
Isabella towards the close of the Conquest, and was Christian- 
ized by the name of Don Pedro de Granada Venegas, was 
descended the present proprietor of the palace, the Marquis 
of Campotejar. The proprietor, however, dwells in a foreign 
land, and the palace has no longer a princely inhabitant. 

Yet here is everything to delight a southern voluptuary : 
fruits, flowers, fragrance, green arbors and myrtle hedges, 
delicate air and gushing waters. Here I had an opportunity 
of witnessing those scenes which painters are fond of depict- 
ing about southern palaces and gardens. It was the saint's 
day of the count's daughter, and she had brought up several 
of her youthful companions from Granada, to sport away a 
long summer's day among the breezy halls and bowers of the 
Moorish palaces. A visit to the Generalife was the morning's 
entertainment. Here some of the gay company dispersed 
itself in groups about the green walks, the bright fountains, 
the flights of Italian steps, the noble terraces and marble 
balustrades. Others, among whom I was one, took their seats 
in an open gallery or colonnade commanding a vast prospect ; 
with the Alhambra, the city, and the Vega, far below, and 
the distant horizon of mountains — a dreamy world, all glim- 
mering to the eye in summer sunshine. While thus seated, 
the all-pervading tinkling of the guitar and click of the cas- 
tanets came stealing up from the valley of the Darro, and half- 
way down the mountain we descried a festive party under the 
trees, enjoying themselves in true Andalusian style ; some 
lying on the grass, others dancing to the music. 

All these sights and sounds, together with the princely 
seclusion of the place, the sweet quiet which prevailed around, 

[ 170] 




\ •■ 









HT^ 









THEALHAMBRA 

and the delicious serenity of the weather, had a witching effect 
upon the mind, and drew from some of the company, versed 
in local story, several of the popular fancies and traditions 
connected with this old Moorish palace ; they were " such 
stuff as dreams are made of," but out of them I have shaped 
the following legend, which I hope may have the good fortune 
to prove acceptable to the reader. 



[172 ] 






^u4?f ' ' (f^J>f^A» flavin* awe^ 



LEGEND OF PRINCE AHMED AL KAMEL 
OR, THE PILGRIM OF LOVE 



^^HERE was once a Moorish king of Granada, who 
had but one son, whom he named Ahmed, to which 
his courtiers added the surname of Al Kamel, or 
The Perfect, from the indubitable signs of superexcellence 
which they perceived in him in his very infancy. The as- 
trologers countenanced them in their foresight, predicting 
everything in his favor that could make a perfect prince 
and a prosperous sovereign. One cloud only rested upon 
his destiny, and even that was of a roseate hue : he would 
be of an amorous temperament, and run great perils from 
the tender passion. If, however, he could be kept from 
the allurements of love until of mature age, these dangers 
would be averted, and his life thereafter be one uninterrupted 
course of felicity. 

To prevent all danger of the kind, the king wisely deter- 
mined to rear the prince in a seclusion where he would never 

[173] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

see a female face, nor hear even the name of love. For this 
purpose he built a beautiful palace on the brow of the hill 
above the Alhambra, in the midst of delightful gardens, but 
surrounded by lofty walls, being, in fact, the same palace 
known at the present day by the name of the Generalife. 
In this palace the youthful prince was shut up, and intrusted 
to the guardianship and instruction of Eben Bonabben, one 
of the wisest and dryest of Arabian sages, who had passed 
the greatest part of his life in Egypt, studying hieroglyphics, 
and making researches among the tombs and pyramids, and 
who saw more charms in an Egyptian mummy than in the 
most tempting of living beauties. The sage was ordered to 
instruct the prince in all kinds of knowledge but one, — he 
was to be kept utterly ignorant of love. "' Use every precau- 
tion for the purpose you may think proper," said the king, 
"but remember, O Eben Bonabben, if my son learns aught 
of that forbidden knowledge while under your care, your head 
shall answer for it." A withered smile came over the dry 
visage of the wise Bonabben at the menace. "" Let your maj- 
esty's heart be as easy about your son, as mine is about my 
head : am I a man likely to give lessons in the idle passion.-* " 

Under the vigilant care of the philosopher, the prince grew 
up in the seclusion of the palace and its gardens. He had 
black slaves to attend upon him — hideous mutes who knew 
nothing of love, or if they did, had not words to communicate 
it. His mental endowments were the peculiar care of Eben 
Bonabben, who sought to initiate him into the abstruse lore 
of Egypt ; but in this the prince made little progress, and it 
was soon evident that he had no turn for philosophy. 

He was, however, amazingly ductile for a youthful prince, 
ready to follow any advice, and always guided by the last 

[174] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

counsellor. He suppressed his yawns, and listened patiently 
to the long and learned discourses of Eben Bonabben, from 
which he imbibed a smattering of various kinds of knowl- 
edge, and thus happily attained his twentieth year, a miracle 
of princely wisdom — but totally ignorant of love. 

About this time, however, a change came over the conduct 
of the prince. He completely abandoned his studies, and 
took to strolling about the gardens, and musing by the side 
of the fountains. He had been taught a little music among 
his various accomplishments ; it now engrossed a great part 
of his time, and a turn for poetry became apparent. The sage 
Eben Bonabben took the alarm, and endeavored to work these 
idle humors out of him by a severe course of algebra ; but 
the prince turned from it with distaste. '" I cannot endure 
algebra," said he ; " it is an abomination to me. I want 
something that speaks more to the heart." 

The sage Eben Bonabben shook his dry head at the words. 
" Here is an end to philosophy," thought he. '" The prince 
has discovered he has a heart ! " He now kept anxious watch 
upon his pupil, and saw that the latent tenderness of his 
nature was in activity, and only wanted an object. He wan- 
dered about the gardens of the Generalife in an intoxication 
of feelings of which he knew not the cause. Sometimes he 
would sit plunged in a delicious reverie ; then he would seize 
his lute and draw from it the most touching notes, and then 
throw it aside, and break forth into sighs and ejaculations. 

By degrees this loving disposition began to extend to inani- 
mate objects ; he had his favorite flowers, which he cherished 
with tender assiduity ; then he became attached to various trees, 
and there was one in particular, of a graceful form and droop- 
ing foliage, on which he lavished his amorous devotion, carving 

[175] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

his name on its bark, hanging garlands on its branches, and 
singing couplets in its praise, to the accompaniment of his lute. 

Eben Bonabben was alarmed at this excited state of his 
pupil. He saw him on the very brink of forbidden knowl- 
edge — the least hint might reveal to him the fatal secret. 
Trembling for the safety of the prince and the security of 
his own head, he hastened to draw him from the seductions 
of the garden, and shut him up in the highest tower of 
the Generalife. It contained beautiful apartments, and com- 
manded an almost boundless prospect, but was elevated far 
above that atmosphere of sweets and those witching bowers 
so dangerous to the feelings of the too susceptible Ahmed. 

What was to be done, however, to reconcile him to this 
restraint and to beguile the tedious hours ? He had ex- 
hausted almost all kinds of agreeable knowledge ; and alge- 
bra was not to be mentioned. Fortunately Eben Bonabben 
had been instructed, when in Egypt, in the language of birds 
by a Jewish Rabbin, who had received it in lineal transmis- 
sion from Solomon the Wise, who had been taught it by the 
Queen of Sheba. At the very mention of such a study, the 
eyes of the prince sparkled with animation, and he applied 
himself to it with such avidity, that he soon became as great 
an adept as his master. 

The tower of the Generalife was no longer a solitude ; he 
had companions at hand with whom he could converse. The 
first acquaintance he formed was with a hawk, who built his 
nest in a crevice of the lofty battlements, whence he soared 
far and wide in quest of prey. The prince, however, found 
little to like or esteem in him. He was a mere pirate of the 
air, swaggering and boastful, whose talk was all about rapine 
and carnage, and desperate exploits. 

[176] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

His next acquaintance was an owl, a mighty wise-looking 
bird, with a huge head and staring eyes, who sat blinking 
and goggling all day in a hole in the wall, but roamed forth 
at night. He had great pretensions to wisdom, talked some- 
thing of astrology and the moon, and hinted at the dark 
sciences ; he was grievously given to metaphysics, and the 
prince found his prosings even more ponderous than those 
of the sage Eben Bonabben. 

Then there was a bat, that hung all day by his heels in 
the dark corner of a vault, but sallied out in slipshod style at 
twilight. He, however, had but twilight ideas on all subjects, 
derided things of which he had taken but an imperfect view, 
and seemed to take delight in nothing. 

Besides these there was a swallow, with whom the prince 
was at first much taken. He was a smart talker, but restless, 
bustling, and forever on the wing ; seldom remaining long 
enough for any continued conversation. He turned out in 
the end to be a mere smatterer, who did but skim over the 
surface of things, pretending to know everything, but knowing 
nothing thoroughly. 

These were the only feathered associates with whom' the 
prince had any opportunity of exercising his newly acquired 
language ; the tower was too high for any other birds to 
frequent it. He soon grew weary of his new acquaintances, 
whose conversation spoke so little to the head and nothing 
to the heart, and gradually relapsed into his loneliness. A 
winter passed away, spring opened with all its bloom and 
verdure and breathing sweetness, and the happy time arrived 
for birds to pair and build their nests. Suddenly, as it were, 
a universal burst of song and melody broke forth from the 
groves and gardens of the Generalife, and reached the prince 

[177] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

in the solitude of his tower. From every side he heard the 
same universal theme — love — love — love — chanted forth, 
and responded to in every variety of note and tone. The 
prince listened in silence and perplexity. " What can be this 
love," thought he, " of which the world seems so full, and 
of which I know nothing .-' " He applied for information to 
his friend the hawk. The ruffian bird answered in a tone of 
scorn : '" You must apply," said he, " to the vulgar peaceable 
birds of earth, who are made for the prey of us princes of 
the air. My trade is war, and fighting my delight. I am a 
warrior, and know nothing of this thing called love." 

The prince turned from him with disgust, and sought the 
owl in his retreat. "This is a bird," said he, "of peaceful 
habits, and may be able to solve my question." So he asked 
the owl to tell him what was this love about which all the 
birds in the groves below were singing. 

Upon this the owl put on a look of offended dignity. " My 
nights," said he, "are taken up in study and research, and 
my days in ruminating in my cell upon all that I have learnt. 
As to these singing birds of whom you talk, I never listen 
to them — I despise them and their themes. Allah be praised, 
I cannot sing ; I am a philosopher, and know nothing of this 
thing called love." 

The prince now repaired to the vault, where his friend the 
bat was hanging by the heels, and propounded the same 
question. The bat wrinkled up his nose into a most snap- 
pish expression. " Why do you disturb me in my morning's 
nap with such an idle question ? " said he, peevishly. " I only 
fly by twilight, when all birds are asleep, and never trouble 
myself with their concerns. I am neither bird nor beast, and 
I thank heaven for it. I have found out the villany of the 

[^78] 



AHMEDALKAMEL 

whole of them, and hate them one and all. In a word, I am 
a misanthrope — and know nothing of this thing called love." 

As a last resort, the prince now sought the swallow, and 
stopped him just as he was circling about the summit of the 
tower. The swallow, as usual, was in a prodigious hurry, and 
had scarce time to make a reply. " Upon my word," said he, 
" I have so much public business to attend to, and so many 
pursuits to follow, that I have had no time to think on the 
subject. I have every day a thousand visits to pay ; a thou- 
sand affairs of importance to examine into, that leave me not 
a moment of leisure for these little sing-song matters. In a 
word, I am a citizen of the world — I know nothing of this 
thing called love." So saying, the swallow dived into the 
valley, and was out of sight in a moment. 

The prince remained disappointed and perplexed, but with 
his curiosity still more piqued by the difficulty of gratifying 
it. While in this mood, his ancient guardian entered the 
tower. The prince advanced eagerly to meet him. " O Eben 
Bonabben," cried he, " thou hast revealed to me much of 
the wisdom of the earth ; but there is one thing of which I 
remain in utter ignorance, and would fain be informed." 

" My prince lias but to make the inquiry, and everything 
within the limited range of his servant's intellect is at his 
command." 

"Tell me, then, O most profound of sages, what is the 
nature of this thing called love .-* " 

Eben Bonabben was struck as with a thunderbolt. He 
trembled and turned pale, and felt as if his head sat but 
loosely on his shoulders. 

' ' What could suggest such a question to my prince, — 
where could he have learnt so idle a word? " 

[179J 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The prince led him to the window of the tower. " Listen, 
Eben Bonabben," said he. The sage Hstened. The nightin- 
gale sat in a thicket below the tower, singing to his paramour, 
the rose ; from every blossomed spray and tufted grove rose 
a strain of melody ; and love — love — love — was still the 
unvarying strain. 

" Allah Akbar ! God is great!" exclaimed the wise Bonab- 
ben. " Who shall pretend to keep this secret from the heart 
of man, when even the birds of the air conspire to betray it .'' " 

Then turning to Ahmed — "O my prince," cried he, "shut 
thine ears to these seductive strains. Close thy mind against 
this dangerous knowledge. Know that this love is the cause 
of half the ills of wretched mortality. It is this which produces 
bitterness and strife between brethren and friends ; which 
causes treacherous murder and desolating war. Care and 
sorrow, weary days and sleepless nights, are its attendants. It 
withers the bloom and blights the joy of youth, and brings on 
the ills and griefs of premature old age. Allah preserve thee, 
my prince, in total ignorance of this thing called love ! " 

The sage Eben Bonabben hastily retired, leaving the 
prince plunged in still deeper perplexity. It was in vain he 
attempted to dismiss the subject from his mind ; it still con- 
tinued uppermost in his thoughts, and teased and exhausted 
him with vain conjectures. Surely, said he to himself, as he 
listened to the tuneful strains of the birds, there is no sorrow 
in those notes ; everything seems tenderness and joy. If love 
be a cause of such wretchedness and strife, why are not these 
birds drooping in solitude, or tearing each other in pieces, 
instead of fluttering cheerfully about the groves, or sporting 
with each other among the flowers .'' 

He lay one morning on his couch, meditating on this 
[iSo] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

inexplicable matter. The window of his chamber was open 
to admit the soft morning breeze, which came laden with the 
perfume of orange-blossoms from the valley of the Darro. 
The voice of the nightingale was faintly heard, still chanting 
the wonted theme. As the prince was listening and sighing, 
there was a sudden rushing noise in the air ; a beautiful dove, 
pursued by a hawk, darted in at the window, and fell panting 
on the floor, while the pursuer, balked of his prey, soared off 
to the mountains. 

The prince took up the gasping bird, smoothed its feathers, 
and nestled it in his bosom. When he had soothed it by his 
caresses, he put it in a golden cage, and offered it, with his 
own hands, the whitest and finest of wheat and the purest 
of water. The bird, however, refused food, and sat drooping 
and pining, and uttering piteous moans. 

" What aileth thee .? " said Ahmed. " Hast thou not every- 
thing thy heart can wish ? " 

"' Alas, no ! " replied the dove ; " am I not separated from 
the partner of my heart, and that too in the happy spring-time, 
the very season of love ! " 

'" Of love ! " echoed Ahmed. " I pray thee, my pretty 
bird, canst thou then tell me what is love .'' " 

" Too well can I, my prince. It is the torment of one, 
the felicity of two, the strife and enmity of three. It is a 
charm which draws two beings together, and unites them by 
delicious sympathies, making it happiness to be with each 
other, but misery to be apart. Is there no being to whom 
you are drawn by these ties of tender affection } " 

" I like my old teacher Eben Bonabben better than any 
other being ; but he is often tedious, and I occasionally feel 
myself happier without his society." 

[i8i] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

" That is not the sympathy I mean. I speak of love, the 
great mystery and principle of life : the intoxicating revel 
of youth ; the sober delight of age. Look forth, my prince, 
and behold how at this blest season all nature is full of love. 
Every created being has its mate ; the most insignificant bird 
sings to its paramour ; the very beetle wooes its lady-beetle 
in the dust, and yon butterflies which you see fluttering high 
above the tower and toying in the air, are happy in each other's 
loves. Alas, my prince ! hast thou spent so many of the 
precious days of youth without knowing anything of love .-* 
Is there no gentle being of another sex — no beautiful prin- 
cess nor lovely damsel who has ensnared your heart, and 
filled your bosom with a soft tumult of pleasing pains and 
tender wishes .-' " 

" I begin to understand," said the prince, sighing ; " such 
a tumult I have more than once experienced, without know- 
ing the cause ; and where should I seek for an object such 
as you describe in this dismal solitude.? " 

A little further conversation ensued, and the first amatory 
lesson of the prince was complete. 

'" Alas ! " said he, " if love be indeed such a delight, and 
its interruption such a misery, Allah forbid that I should mar 
the joy of any of its votaries." He opened the cage, took out 
the dove, and having fondly kissed it, carried it to the window. 
"' Go, happy bird," said he, " rejoice with the partner of thy 
heart in the days of youth and spring-time. Why should I 
make thee a fellow-prisoner in this dreary tower, where love 
can never enter > ' ' 

The dove flapped its wings in rapture, gave one vault into 
the air, and then swooped downward on whistling wings to 
the blooming bowers of the Darro. 

[1S2] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

The prince followed him with his eyes, and then gave 
way to bitter repining. The singing of the birds, which 
once delighted him, now added to his bitterness. Love ! 
love! love! Alas, poor youth! he now understood the strain. 

His eyes flashed fire when next he beheld the sage 
Bonabben. " Why hast thou kept me in this abject igno- 
rance .'' " cried he. " Why has the great mystery and prin- 
ciple of life been withheld from me, in which I find the 
meanest insect is so learned ? Behold all nature is in a 
revel of delight. Every created being rejoices with its mate. 
This — this is the love about which I have sought instruc- 
tion. Why am I alone debarred its enjoyment ? Why has 
so much of my youth been wasted without a knowledge of 
its raptures .'' " 

The sage Bonabben saw that all further reserve was useless ; 
for the prince had acquired the dangerous and forbidden 
knowledge. He revealed to him, therefore, the predictions 
of the astrologers and the precautions that had been taken 
in his education to avert the threatened evils. "And now, 
my prince," added he, " my life is in your hands. Let the 
king, your father, discover that you have learned the passion 
of love while under my guardianship, and my head must 
answer for it." 

The prince was as reasonable as most young men of his 
age, and easily listened to the remonstrances of his tutor, 
since nothing pleaded against them. Besides, he really was 
attached to Eben Bonabben, and being as yet but theoretically 
acquainted with the passion of love, he consented to confine 
the knowledge of it to his own bosom, rather than endanger 
the head of the philosopher. 

His discretion was doomed, however, to be put to still 

[^83] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

further proofs. A few mornings afterward, as he was rumi- 
nating on the battlements of the tower, the dove which had 
been released by him came hovering in the air, and alighted 
fearlessly upon his shoulder. 

The prince fondled it to his heart. " Happy bird," said 
he, " who can fly, as it were, with the wings of the morning 
to the uttermost parts of the earth. Where hast thou been 
since we parted ? " 

" In a far country, my prince, whence I bring you tidings 
in reward for my liberty. In the wild compass of my flight, 
which extends over plain and mountain, as I was soaring in 
the air, I beheld below me a delightful garden with all kinds 
of fruits and flowers. It was in a green meadow, on the 
banks of a wandering stream, and in the centre of the garden 
was a stately palace. I alighted in one of the bowers to repose 
after my weary flight. On the green bank below me was a 
youthful princess, in the very sweetness and bloom of her 
years. She was surrounded by female attendants, young like 
herself, who decked her with garlands and coronets of flowers ; 
but no flower of field or garden could compare with her for 
loveliness. Here, however, she bloomed in secret, for the 
garden was surrounded by high walls, and no mortal man 
was permitted to enter. When I beheld this beauteous maid, 
thus young and innocent and unspotted by the world, I 
thought, here is the being formed by heaven to inspire my 
prince with love." 

The description was a spark of fire to the combustible 
heart of Ahmed ; all the latent amorousness of his tempera- 
ment had at once found an object, and he conceived an 
immeasurable passion for the princess. He wrote a letter, 
couched in the most impassioned language, breathing his 

[184] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

fervent devotion, but bewailing the unhappy thraldom of his 
person, which prevented him from seeking her out and 
throwing himself at her feet. He added couplets of the 
most tender and moving eloquence, for he was a poet by 
nature, and inspired by love. He addressed his letter — "To 
the Unknown Beauty, from the captive Prince Ahmed " ; 
then perfuming it with musk and roses, he gave it to 
the dove. 

"Away, trustiest of messengers!" said he. "Fly over 
mountain, and valley, and river, and plain ; rest not in bower, 
nor set foot on earth, until thou hast given this letter to the 
mistress of my heart." 

The dove soared high in air, and taking his course darted 
away in one undeviating direction. The prince followed him 
with his eye until he was a mere speck on a cloud, and 
gradually disappeared behind a mountain. 

Day after day he watched for the return of the messenger 
of love, but he watched in vain. He began to accuse him 
of forgetfulness, when towards sunset one evening the faith- 
ful bird fluttered into his apartment, and falling at his feet 
expired. The arrow of some wanton archer had pierced his 
breast, yet he had struggled with the lingerings of life to 
execute his mission. As the prince bent with grief over this 
gentle martyr to fidelity, he beheld a chain of pearls round 
his neck, attached to which, beneath his wing, was a small 
enamelled picture. It represented a lovely princess in the 
very fiower of her years. It was doubtless the unknown 
beauty of the garden ; but who and where was she ? — how 
had she received his letter ? and was this picture sent as a 
token of her approval of his passion ? Unfortunately the death 
of the faithful dove left everything in mystery and doubt. 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The prince gazed on the picture till his eyes swam with 
tears. He pressed it to his lips and to his heart ; he sat for 
hours contemplating it almost in an agony of tenderness. 
" Beautiful image ! " said he, '" alas, thou art but an image ! 
Yet thy dewy eyes beam tenderly upon me ; those rosy lips 
look as though they would speak encouragement : vain 
fancies ! Have they not looked the same on some more 
happy rival .<* But where in this wide world shall I hope to 
find the original ? Who knows what mountains, what realms 
may separate us ; what adverse chances may intervene .-' 
Perhaps now, even now, lovers may be crowding around her, 
while I sit here a prisoner in a tower, wasting my time in 
adoration of a painted shadow." 

The resolution of Prince Ahmed was taken. " I will fly 
from this palace," said he, " which has become an odious 
prison ; and, a pilgrim of love, will seek this unknown prin- 
cess throughout the world," To escape from the tower in 
the day, when every one was awake, might be a difficult 
matter ; but at night the palace was slightly guarded ; for no 
one apprehended any attempt of the kind from the prince, 
who had always been so passive in his captivity. How was 
he to guide himself, however, in his darkling flight, being 
ignorant of the country } He bethought him of the owl, who 
was accustomed to roam at night, and must know every by- 
lane and secret pass. Seeking him in his hermitage, he 
questioned him touching his knowledge of the land. Upon 
this the owl put on a mighty self-important look. "You must 
know, O prince," said he, " that we owls are of a very ancient 
and extensive family, though rather fallen to decay, and pos- 
sess ruinous castles and palaces in all parts of Spain. There 
is scarcely a tower of the mountains, or a fortress of the plains, 

[i86] 




.■^<^A 



THE GENERALIFE, THE ALHAMBRA, AND GRANADA FROM 
"SILLA DEL MORO" (SEAT OF THE MOOR) 



THE ALHAMBRA 

or an olcf citadel of a city, but has some brother, or uncle, or 
cousin quartered in it ; and in going the rounds to visit this 
my numerous kindred, I have pried into every nook and cor- 
ner, and made myself acquainted with every secret of the land." 

The prince was overjoyed to find the owl so deeply versed 
in topography, and now informed him, in confidence, of his 
tender passion and his intended elopement, urging him to 
be his companion and counsellor. 

" Go to ! " said the owl, with a look of displeasure ; " am 
I a bird to engage in a love-affair ? — I, whose whole time 
is devoted to meditation and the moon .? " 

" Be not offended, most solemn owl," replied the prince; 
"' abstract thyself for a time from meditation and the moon, 
and aid me in my flight, and thou shalt have whatever heart 
can wish." 

"I have that already," said the owl; "a few mice are 
sufficient for my frugal table, and this hole in the wall is 
spacious enough for my studies ; and what more does a 
philosopher like myself desire ? " 

"Bethink thee, most wise owl, that while moping in thy 
cell and gazing at the moon, all thy talents are lost to the 
world. I shall one day be a sovereign prince, and may advance 
thee to some post of honor and dignity." 

The owl, though a philosopher and above the ordinary 
wants of life, was not above ambition, so he was finally pre- 
vailed on to elope with the prince, and be his guide and 
mentor in his pilgrimage. 

The plans of a lover are promptly executed. The prince 
collected all his jewels, and concealed them about his person 
as travelling funds. That very night he lowered himself by 
his scarf from a balcony of the tower, clambered over the 

[i88] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

outer walls of the Generalife, and, guided by the owl, made 
good his escape before morning to the mountains. 

He now held a council with his mentor as to his future 
course, 

" Might I advise," said the owl, " I would recommend you 
to repair to Seville. You must know that many years since 
I was on a visit to an uncle, an owl of great dignity and power, 
who lived in a ruined wing of the Alcazar of that place. In 
my hoverings at night over the city I frequently remarked a 
light burning in a lonely tower. At length I alighted on the 
battlements, and found it to proceed from the lamp of an 
Arabian magician : he was surrounded by his magic books, 
and on his shoulder was perched his familiar, an ancient 
raven who had come with him from Egypt. I am acquainted 
with that raven, and owe to him a great part of the knowl- 
edge I possess. The magician is since dead, but the raven 
still inhabits the tower, for these birds are of wonderful long 
life. I would advise you, O prince, to seek that raven, for 
he is a soothsayer and a conjurer, and deals in the black art, 
for which all ravens, and especially those of Egpyt, are 
renowned." 

The prince was struck with the wisdom of this advice, 
and accordingly bent his course towards Seville. He travelled 
only in the night to accommodate his companion, and lay by 
during the day in some dark cavern or mouldering watch- 
tower, for the owl knew every hiding-hole of the kind, and 
had a most antiquarian taste for ruins. 

At length one morning at breakfast they reached the city 
of Seville, where the owl, who hated the glare and bustle of 
crowded streets, halted without the gate, and took up his 
quarters in a hollow tree. 

[189] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The prince entered the gate, and readily found the magic 
tower, which rose above the houses of the city, as a palm-tree 
rises above the shrubs of the desert ; it was in fact the same 
tower standing at the present day, and known as the Giralda, 
the famous Moorish tower of Seville. 

The prince ascended by a great winding staircase to the 
summit of the tower, where he found the cabalistic raven — 
an old, mysterious, gray-headed bird, ragged in feather, with 
a film over one eye that gave him the glare of a spectre. 
He was perched on one leg, with his head turned on one 
side, poring with his remaining eye on a diagram described 
on the pavement. 

The prince approached him with the awe and reverence 
naturally inspired by his venerable appearance and super- 
natural wisdom. " Pardon me, most ancient and darkly wise 
raven," exclaimed he, " if for a moment I interrupt those 
studies which are the wonder of the world. You behold be- 
fore you a votary of love, who would fain seek your counsel 
how to obtain the object of his passion." 

"In other words," said the raven, with a significant look, 
"you seek to try my skill in palmistry. Come, show me 
your hand, and let me decipher the mysterious lines of 
fortune." 

" Excuse me," said the prince, " I come not to pry into 
the decrees of fate, which are hidden by Allah from the eyes 
of mortals ; I am a pilgrim of love, and seek but to find a 
clue to the object of my pilgrimage. I seek one unknown 
but immaculate beauty, the original of this picture ; and I 
beseech thee, most potent raven, if it be within the scope of 
thy knowledge or the reach of thy art, inform me where she 
may be found." 

[190] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

The gray-headed raven was rebuked by the gravity of the 
prince. 

" What know I," replied he, dryly, " of youth and beauty ? 
My visits are to the old and withered, not to the fresh and 
fair ; the harbinger of fate am I, who croak bodings of death 
from the chimney-top, and flap my wings at the sick man's 
window. You must seek elsewhere for tidings of your un- 
known beauty." 

" And where can I seek if not among the sons of wisdom, 
versed in the book of destiny ? Know that I am a royal 
prince, fated by the stars, and sent on a mysterious enterprise 
on which may hang the destiny of empires." 

When the raven heard that it was a matter of vast moment, 
in which the stars took interest, he changed his tone and 
manner, and listened with profound attention to the story of 
the prince. When it was concluded, he replied : " Touching 
this princess, I can give thee no information of myself, for 
my flight is not among gardens, or around ladies' bowers ; 
but hie thee to Cordova, seek the palm-tree of the great 
Abderahman, which stands in the court of the principal 
mosque ; at the foot of it thou wilt find a great traveller 
who has visited all countries and courts, and been a favorite 
with queens and princesses. He will give thee tidings of the 
object of thy search." 

" Many thanks for this precious information," said the 
prince. " Farewell, most venerable conjurer." 

"' Farewell, pilgrim of love," said the raven, dryly, and 
again fell to pondering on the diagram. 

The prince sallied forth from Seville, sought his fellow- 
traveller the owl, who was still dozing in the hollow tree, and 
set off for Cordova. 

[191] 



THEALHAMBRA 

He approached it along hanging gardens and orange and 
citron groves, overlooking the fair valley of the Guadalquivir. 
When arrived at its gates the owl flew up to a dark hole in 
the wall, and the prince proceeded in quest of the palm-tree 
planted in days of yore by the great Abderahman. It stood 
in the midst of the great court of the mosque, towering from 
amidst orange and cypress trees. Dervises and faquirs were 
seated in groups under the cloisters of the court, and many 
of the faithful were performing their ablutions at the fountains 
before entering the mosque. 

At the foot of the palm-tree was a crowd listening to the 
words of one who appeared to be talking with great volubil- 
ity. " This," said the prince to himself, '" must be the great 
traveller who is to give me tidings of the unknown princess." 
He mingled in the crowd, but was astonished to perceive that 
they were all listening to a parrot, who, with his bright-green 
coat, pragmatical eye, and consequential top-knot, had the air 
of a bird on excellent terms with himself. 

" How is this," said the prince to one of the by-standers, 
"that so many grave persons can be delighted with the 
garrulity of a chattering bird .? " 

"You know not whom you speak of," said the other; 
" this parrot is a descendant of the famous parrot of Persia, 
renowned for his story-telling talent. He has all the learning 
of the East at the tip of his tongue, and can quote poetry as 
fast as he can talk. He has visited various foreign courts, 
where he has been considered an oracle of erudition. He has 
been a universal favorite also with the fair sex, who have a 
vast admiration for erudite parrots that can quote poetry." 

" Enough," said the prince, " I will have some private 
talk with this distinguished traveller." 

[192] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

He sought a private interview, and expounded the nature 
of his errand. He had scarcely mentioned it when the parrot 
burst into a fit of dry rickety laughter, that absolutely brought 
tears into his eyes, " Excuse my merriment," said he, "but 
the mere mention of love always sets me laughing." 

The prince was shocked at this ill-timed mirth. "Is not 
love," said he, " the great mystery of nature, the secret prin- 
ciple of life, the universal bond of sympathy .-' " 

" A fig's end ! " cried the parrot, interrupting him ; 
" prithee where hast thou learned this sentimental jargon .? 
Trust me, love is quite out of vogue ; one never hears of it 
in the company of wits and people of refinement." 

The prince sighed as he recalled the different language of 
his friend the dove. But this parrot, thought he, has lived 
about the court, he affects the wit and the fine gentleman, he 
knows nothing of the thing called love. Unwilling to provoke 
any more ridicule of the sentiment which filled his heart, he 
now directed his inquiries to the immediate purport of his visit. 

" Tell me," said he, " most accomplished parrot, thou who 
hast everywhere been admitted to the most secret bowers of 
beauty, hast thou in the course of thy travels met with the 
original of this portrait .'' " 

The parrot took the picture in his claw, turned his head 
from side to side, and examined it curiously with either eye, 
"Upon my honor," said he, "a very pretty face, very pretty; 
but then one sees so many pretty women in one's travels that 
one can hardly — but hold — bless me! now I look at it again 
— sure enough, this is the Princess Aldegonda : how could 
I forget one that is so prodigious a favorite with me ! " 

"The Princess Aldegonda!" echoed the prince; "and 
where is she to be found ? " 

[193] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

"' Softly, softly," said the parrot, " easier to be found than 
gained. She is the only daughter of the Christian king who 
reigns at Toledo, and is shut up from the world until her 
seventeenth birthday, on account of some prediction of those 
meddlesome fellows the astrologers. You '11 not get a sight 
of her ; no mortal man can see her. I was admitted to her 
presence to entertain her, and I assure you, on the word of 
a parrot who has seen the world, I have conversed with 
much sillier princesses in my time." 

" A word in confidence, my dear parrot," said the prince. 
" I am heir to a kingdom, and shall one day sit upon a throne. 
I see that you are a bird of parts, and understand the world. 
Help me to gain possession of this princess, and I will 
advance you to some distinguished place about court." 

"' With all my heart," said the parrot ; " but let it be a sine- 
cure if possible, for we wits have a great dislike to labor." 

Arrangements were promptly made : the prince sallied 
forth from Cordova through the same gate by which he had 
entered ; called the owl down from the hole in the wall, in- 
troduced him to his new travelling companion as a brother 
savant, and away they set off on their journey. 

They travelled much more slowly than accorded with the 
impatience of the prince ; but the parrot was accustomed to 
high life, and did not like to be disturbed early in the morn- 
ing. The owl, on the other hand, was for sleeping at mid- 
day, and lost a great deal of time by his long siestas. His 
antiquarian taste also was in the way ; for he insisted on 
pausing and inspecting every ruin, and had long legendary 
tales to tell about every old tower and castle in the country. 
The prince had supposed that he and the parrot, being both 
birds of learning, would delight in each other's society, but 

[ 194] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

never had he been more mistaken. They were eternally 
bickering. The one was a wit, the other a philosopher. 
The parrot quoted poetry, was critical on new readings and 
eloquent on small points of erudition ; the owl treated all 
such knowledge as trifling, and relished nothing but meta- 
physics. Then the parrot would sing songs and repeat bon 
mots and crack jokes upon his solemn neighbor, and laugh 
outrageously at his own wit ; all which proceedings the 
owl considered as a grievous invasion of his dignity, and 
would scowl and sulk and swell, and be silent for a whole 
day together. 

The prince heeded not the wranglings of his companions, 
being wrapped up in the dreams of his own fancy and the 
contemplation of the portrait of the beautiful princess. In 
this way they journeyed through the stern passes of the 
Sierra Morena, across the sunburnt plains of La Mancha 
and Castile, and along the banks of the " Golden Tagus," 
which winds its wizard mazes over one half of Spain and 
Portugal. At length they came in sight of a strong city with 
walls and towers built on a rocky promontory, round the foot 
of which the Tagus circled with brawling violence. 

" Behold," exclaimed the owl, " the ancient and renowned 
city of Toledo ; a city famous for its antiquities. Behold 
those venerable domes and towers, hoary with time and 
clothed with legendary grandeur, in which so many of my 
ancestors have meditated." 

" Pish ! " cried the parrot, interrupting his solemn anti- 
quarian rapture, "what have we to do with antiquities, and 
legends, and your ancestry } Behold what is more to the 
purpose — behold the abode of youth and beauty • — behold 
at length, O prince, the abode of your long-sought princess." 

[x95] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The prince looked in the direction indicated by the parrot, 
and beheld, in a delightful green meadow on the banks of 
the Tagus, a stately palace rising from amidst the bowers of 
a delicious garden. It was just such a place as had been 
described by the dove as the residence of the original of the 
picture. He gazed at it with a throbbing heart ; " perhaps at 
this moment," thought he, "the beautiful princess is sport- 
ing beneath those shady bowers, or pacing with delicate step 
those stately terraces, or reposing beneath those lofty roofs ! " 
As he looked more narrowly, he perceived that the walls of 
the garden were of great height, so as to defy access, while 
numbers of armed guards patrolled around them. 

The prince turned to the parrot, '" O most accomplished 
of birds," said he, " thou hast the gift of human speech. 
Hie thee to yon garden ; seek the idol of my soul, and tell 
her that Prince Ahmed, a pilgrim of love, and guided .by 
the stars, has arrived in quest of her on the flowery banks 
of the Tagus." 

The parrot, proud of his embassy, flew away to the garden, 
mounted above its lofty walls, and after soaring for a time 
over the lawns and groves, alighted on the balcony of a pavil- 
ion that overhung the river. Here, looking in at the case- 
ment, he beheld the princess reclining on a couch, with her 
eyes fixed on a paper, while tears gently stole after each 
other down her pallid cheek. 

Pluming his wings for a moment, adjusting his bright- 
green coat, and elevating his top-knot, the parrot perched 
himself beside her with a gallant air ; then assuming a ten- 
derness of tone, "" Dry thy tears, most beautiful of princesses," 
said he ; "I come to bring solace to thy heart." 

The princess was startled on hearing a voice, but turning, 
[196] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

and seeing nothing but a little green-coated bird bobbing and 
bowing before her, "Alas! what solace canst thou yield," 
said she, " seeing thou art but a parrot ? " 

The parrot was nettled at the question. " I have consoled 
many beautiful ladies in my time," said he; "but let that 
pass. At present I come ambassador from a royal prince. 
Know that Ahmed, the Prince of Granada, has arrived in 
quest of thee, and is encamped even now on the flowery 
banks of the Tagus." 

The eyes of the beautiful princess sparkled at these words, 
even brighter than the diamonds in her coronet. " O sweet- 
est of parrots," cried she, "joyful indeed are thy tidings, for 
I was faint and weary, and sick almost unto death with doubt 
of the constancy of Ahmed. Hie thee back, and tell him 
that the words of his letter are engraven in my heart, and 
his poetry has been the food of my soul. Tell him, however, 
that he must prepare to prove his love by force of arms ; to- 
morrow is my seventeenth birthday, when the king, my father, 
holds a great tournament ; several princes are to enter the 
lists, and my hand is to be the prize of the victor." 

The parrot again took wing, and rustling through the 
groves, fiew back to where the prince awaited his return. 
The rapture of Ahmed on finding the original of his adored 
portrait, and finding her kind and true, can only be conceived 
by those favored mortals who have had the good fortune to 
realize day-dreams and turn a shadow into substance ; still 
there was one thing that alloyed his transport — this impend- 
ing tournament. In fact, the banks of the Tagus were already 
glittering with arms, and resounding with trumpets of the 
various knights, who, with proud retinues, were prancing on 
towards Toledo to attend the ceremonial. The same star that 

[ 197 ] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

had controlled the destiny of the prince had governed that 
of the princess, and until her seventeenth birthday she had 
been shut up from the world, to guard her from the tender 
passion. The fame of her charms, however, had been en- 
hanced rather than obscured by this seclusion. Several pow- 
erful princes had contended for her hand ; and her father, 
who was a king of wondrous shrewdness, to avoid making 
enemies by showing partiality, had referred them to the arbit- 
rament of arms. Among the rival candidates were several 
renowned for strength and prowess. What a predicament for 
the unfortunate Ahmed, unprovided as he was with weapons, 
and unskilled in the exercise of chivalry ! "' Luckless prince 
that I am ! " said he, "' to have been brought up in seclusion 
under the eye of a philosopher ! Of what avail are algebra 
and philosophy in affairs of love .? Alas, Eben Bonabben ! 
why hast thou neglected to instruct me in the management 
of arms ? " Upon this the owl broke silence, preluding his 
harangue with a pious ejaculation, for he was a devout 
Mussulman. 

"Allah Akbar ! God is great!" exclaimed he; "in his 
hands are all secret things — he alone governs the destiny of 
princes ! Know, O prince, that this land is full of mysteries, 
hidden from all but those who, like myself, can grope after 
knowledge in the dark. Know that in the neighboring moun- 
tains there is a cave, and in that cave there is an iron table, 
and on that table there lies a suit of magic armor, and beside 
that table there stands a spell-bound steed, which have been 
shut up there for many generations." 

The prince stared with wonder, while the owl, blinking his 
huge round eyes, and erecting his horns, proceeded. 

" Many years since I accompanied my father to these parts 
[198] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

on a tour of his estates, and we sojourned in that cave ; and 
thus became I acquainted with the mystery. It is a tradition 
in our family which I have heard from my grandfather, when 
I was yet but a very httle owlet, that this armor belonged to 
a Moorish magician, who took refuge in this cavern when 
Toledo was captured by the Christians, and died here, leav- 
ing his steed and weapons under a mystic spell, never to be 
used but by a Moslem, and by him only from sunrise to 
mid-day. In that interval, whoever uses them will overthrow 
every opponent." 

" Enough : let us seek this cave ! " exclaimed Ahm.ed, 
Guided by his legendary mentor, the prince found the 
cavern, which was in one of the wildest recesses of those 
rocky cliffs which rise around Toledo ; none but the mousing 
eye of an owl or an antiquary could have discovered the en- 
trance to it. A sepulchral lamp of everlasting oil shed a sol- 
emn light through the place. On an iron table in the centre 
of the cavern lay the magic armor, against it leaned the lance, 
and beside it stood an Arabian steed, caparisoned for the 
field, but motionless as a statue. The armor was bright and 
unsullied as it had gleamed in days of old, the steed in as 
good condition as if just from the pasture, and when Ahmed 
laid his hand upon his neck, he pawed the ground and gave 
a loud neigh of joy that shook the walls of the cavern. Thus 
amply provided with " horse and rider and weapon to wear," 
the prince determined to defy the field in the impending 
tourney. 

The eventful morning arrived. The lists for the combat 
were prepared in the z>ega, or plain, just before the cliff-built 
walls of Toledo, where stages and galleries were erected for 
the spectators, covered with rich tapestry, and sheltered from 

[ 199] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

the sun by silken awnings. All the beauties of the land were 
assembled in those galleries, while below pranced plumed 
knights with their pages and esquires, among whom figured 
conspicuously the princes who were to contend in the tourney. 
All the beauties of the land, however, were eclipsed when 
the Princess Aldegonda appeared in the royal pavilion, and 
for the first time broke forth upon the gaze of an admiring 
world. A murmur of wonder ran through the crowd at her 
transcendent loveliness ; and the princes who were candidates 
for her hand, merely on the faith of her reported charms, 
now felt tenfold ardor for the conflict. 

The princess, however, had a troubled look. The color 
came and went from her cheek, and her eye wandered with 
a restless and unsatisfied expression over the plumed throng 
of knights. The trumpets were about sounding for the 
encounter, when the herald announced the arrival of a 
strange knight, and Ahmed rode into the field. A steel 
helmet studded with gems rose above his turban, his cuirass 
was embossed with gold, his cimeter and dagger were of the 
workmanship of Fez, and flamed with precious stones. A 
round shield was at his shoulder, and in his hand he bore 
the lance of charmed virtue. The caparison of his Arabian 
steed was richly embroidered and swept the ground, and the 
proud animal pranced and snuffed the air, and neighed with 
joy at once more beholding the array of arms. The lofty 
and graceful demeanor of the prince struck every eye, and 
when his appellation was announced, " The Pilgrim of 
Love," a universal flutter and agitation prevailed among the 
fair dames in the galleries. 

When Ahmed presented himself at the lists, however, 
they were closed against him ; none but princes, he was 

[200] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

told, were admitted to the contest. He declared his name 
and rank. Still worse ! — he was a Moslem, and could not 
engage in a tourney where the hand of a Christian princess 
was the prize. 

The rival princes surrounded him with haughty and 
menacing aspects, and one of insolent demeanor and Her- 
culean frame sneered at his light and youthful form, and 
scoffed at his amorous appellation. The ire of the prince 
was roused. He defied his rival to the encounter. They 
took distance, wheeled, and charged ; and at the first touch 
of the magic lance, the brawny scoffer was tilted from his 
saddle. Here the prince would have paused, but, alas ! he 
had to deal with a demoniac horse and armor ; once in 
action, nothing could control them. The Arabian steed 
charged into the thickest of the throng ; the lance over- 
turned everything that presented ; the gentle prince was 
carried pell-mell about the field, strewing it with high and 
low, gentle and simple, and grieving at his own involuntary 
exploits. The king stormed and raged at this outrage on 
his subjects and his guests. He ordered out all his guards 
— they were unhorsed as fast as they came up. The king 
threw off his robes, grasped buckler and lance, and rode 
forth to awe the stranger with the presence of majesty itself. 
Alas! majesty fared no better than the vulgar; the steel 
and lance were no respecters of persons ; to the dismay of 
Ahmed, he was borne full tilt against the king, and in a 
moment the royal heels were in the air, and the crown was 
rolling in the dust. 

At this moment the sun reached the meridian ; the magic 
spell resumed its power ; the Arabian steed scoured across 
the plain, leaped the barrier, plunged into the Tagus, swam 

[201] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

its raging current, bore the prince breathless and amazed 
to the cavern, and resumed his station, hke a statue, beside 
the iron table. The prince dismounted right gladly, and re- 
placed the armor, to abide the further decrees of fate. Then 
seating himself in the cavern, he ruminated on the desperate 
state to which this demoniac steed and armor had reduced 
him. Never should he dare to show his face at Toledo after 
inflicting such disgrace upon its chivalry, and such an out- 
rage on its king. What, too, would the princess think of so 
rude and riotous an achievement ? Full of anxiety, he sent 
forth his winged messengers to gather tidings. The parrot 
resorted to all the public places and crowded resorts of the 
city, and soon returned with a world of gossip. All Toledo 
was in consternation. The princess had been borne off sense- 
less to the palace ; the tournament had ended in confusion ; 
every one was talking of the sudden apparition, prodigious 
exploits, and strange disappearance of the Moslem knight. 
Some pronounced him a Moorish magician, others thought 
him a demon who had assumed a human shape, while others 
related traditions of enchanted warriors hidden in the caves 
of the mountains, and thought it might be one of these, 
who had made a sudden irruption from his den. All agreed 
that no mere ordinary mortal could have wrought such won- 
ders, or unhorsed such accomplished and stalwart Christian 
warriors. 

The owl flew forth at night and hovered about the dusky 
city, perching on the roofs and chimneys. He then wheeled 
his flight up to the royal palace, which stood on a rocky sum- 
mit of Toledo, and went prowling about its terraces and bat- 
tlements, eavesdropping at every cranny, and glaring in with 
his big goggling eyes at every window where there was a light 

[202] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

so as to throw two or three maids of honor into fits. It was 
not until the gray dawn began to peer above the mountains 
that he returned from his mousing expedition, and related 
to the prince what he had seen. 

"' As I was prying about one of the loftiest towers of the 
palace," said he, " I beheld through a casement a beautiful 
princess. She was reclining on a couch with attendants and 
physicians around her, but she would none of their ministry 
and relief. When they retired, I beheld her draw forth a 
letter from her bosom, and read and kiss it, and give way to 
loud lamentations ; at which, philosopher as I am, I could 
but be greatly moved." 

The tender heart of Ahmed was distressed at these tidings. 
"' Too true were thy words, O sage Eben Bonabben," cried 
he ; " care and sorrow and sleepless nights are the lot of 
lovers. Allah preserve the princess from the blighting 
influence of this thing called love ! " 

Further intelligence from Toledo corroborated the report 
of the owl. The city was a prey to uneasiness and alarm. 
The princess was conveyed to the highest tower of the 
palace, every avenue to which was strongly guarded. In the 
meantime a devouring melancholy had seized upon her, of 
which no one could divine the cause — she refused food and 
turned a deaf ear to every consolation. The most skilful 
physicians had essayed their art in vain ; it was thought 
some magic spell had been practised upon her, and the king 
made proclamation, declaring that whoever should effect her 
cure should receive the richest jewel in the royal treasury. 

When the owl, who was dozing in a corner, heard of this 
proclamation, he rolled his large eyes and looked more 
mysterious than ever. 

[203] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

"Allah Akbar ! " exclaimed he, "happy the man that 
shall effect that cure, should he but know what to choose 
from the royal treasury." 

" What mean you, most reverend owl ? " said Ahmed. 

" Hearken, O prince, to what I shall relate. We owls, 
you must know, are a learned body, and much given to dark 
and dusty research. During my late prowling at night about 
the domes and turrets of Toledo, I discovered a college of 
antiquarian owls, who hold their meetings in a great vaulted 
tower where the royal treasury is deposited. Here they were 
discussing the forms and inscriptions and designs of ancient 
gems and jewels, and of golden and silver vessels, heaped 
up in the treasury, the fashion of every country and age ; 
but mostly they were interested about certain relics and talis- 
mans that have remained in the treasury since the time of 
Roderick the Goth. Among these was a box of sandal-wood 
secured by bands of steel of Oriental workmanship, and 
inscribed with mystic characters known only to the learned 
few. This box and its inscription had occupied the college 
for several sessions, and had caused much long and grave 
dispute. At the time of my visit a very ancient owl, who had 
recently arrived from Egypt, was seated on the lid of the 
box, lecturing upon the inscription, and he proved from it 
that the coffer contained the silken carpet of the throne of 
Solomon the Wise ; which doubtless had been brought to 
Toledo by the Jews who took refuge there after the downfall 
of Jerusalem." 

When the owl had concluded his antiquarian harangue, 
the prince remained for a time absorbed in thought. " I have 
heard," said he, " from the sage Eben Bonabben, of the won- 
derful properties of that talisman, which disappeared at the 

[204] 



AHMED AL KAMEL 

fall of Jerusalem, and was supposed to be lost to mankind. 
Doubtless it remains a sealed mystery to the Christians of 
Toledo. If I can get possession of that carpet, my fortune 
is secure." 

The next day the prince laid aside his rich attire, and 
arrayed himself in the simple garb of an Arab of the desert. 
He dyed his complexion to a tawny hue, and no one could 
have recognized in him the splendid warrior who had caused 
such admiration and dismay at the tournament. With staff 
in hand, and scrip by his side, and a small pastoral reed, he 
repaired to Toledo, and presenting himself at the gate of the 
royal palace, announced himself as a candidate for the reward 
offered for the cure of the princess. The guards would have 
driven him away with blows. " What can a vagrant Arab 
like thyself pretend to do," said they, " in a case where the 
most learned of the land have failed ? " The king, however, 
overheard the tumult, and ordered the Arab to be brought 
into his presence. 

"Most potent king," said Ahmed, "you behold before 
you a Bedouin Arab, the greater part of whose life has been 
passed in the solitudes of the desert. These solitudes, it is 
well known, are the haunts of demons and evil spirits, who 
beset us poor shepherds in our lonely watchings, ehter into 
and possess our flocks and herds, and sometimes render even 
the patient camel furious ; against these, our counter charm 
is music ; and we have legendary airs handed down from 
generation to generation, that we chant and pipe, to cast 
forth these evil spirits. I am of a gifted line, and possess 
this power in its fullest force. If it be any evil influence of 
the kind that holds a spell over thy daughter, I pledge my 
head to free her from its sway." 

[ 205 ] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The king, who was a man of understanding, and knew 
the wonderful secrets possessed by the Arabs, was inspired 
with hope by the confident language of the prince. He con- 
ducted him immediately to the lofty tower, secured by several 
doors, in the summit of which was the chamber of the prin- 
cess. The windows opened upon a terrace with balustrades, 
commanding a view over Toledo and all the surrounding 
country. The windows were darkened, for the princess lay 
within, a prey to a devouring grief that refused all alleviation. 

The prince seated himself on the terrace, and performed 
several wild Arabian airs on his pastoral pipe, which he 
had learnt from his attendants in the Generalife at Granada. 
The princess continued insensible, and the doctors who were 
present shook their heads and smiled with incredulity and 
contempt : at length the prince laid aside the reed, and, 
to a simple melody, chanted the amatory verses of the letter 
which had declared his passion. 

The princess recognized the strain — a fluttering joy stole 
to her heart ; she raised her head and listened ; tears rushed to 
her eyes and streamed down her cheeks ; her bosom rose and 
fell with a tumult of emotions. She would have asked for the 
minstrel to be brought into her presence, but maiden coyness 
held her silent. The king read her wishes, and at his command 
Ahmed was conducted into the chamber. The lovers were 
discreet : they but exchanged glances, yet those glances spoke 
volumes. Never was triumph of music more complete. The 
rose had returned to the soft cheek of the princess, the fresh- 
ness lo her lip, and the dewy light to her languishing eyes. 

All the physicians present stared at each other with aston- 
ishment. The king regarded the Arab minstrel with admira- 
tion mixed with awe. " Wonderful youth ! " exclaimed he, 

[206] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

"' thou shalt henceforth be the first physician of my court, 
and no other prescription will I take but thy melody. For 
the present receive thy reward, the most precious jewel in 
my treasury." 

"' O king," replied Ahmed, " I care not for silver or gold 
or precious stones. One relic hast thou in thy treasury, 
handed down from the Moslems who once owned Toledo — 
a box of sandal-wood containing a silken carpet : give me 
that box, and I am content." 

All present were surprised at the moderation of the Arab, 
and still more when the box of sandal-wood was brought and 
the carpet drawn forth. It was of fine green silk, covered 
with Hebrew and Chaldaic characters. The court physicians 
looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and smiled 
at the simplicity of this new practitioner, who could be 
content with so paltry a fee. 

"This carpet," said the prince, "once covered the throne 
of Solomon the Wise ; it is worthy of being placed beneath 
the feet of beauty." 

So saying, he spread it on the terrace beneath an ottoman 
that had been brought forth for the princess ; then seating 
himself at her feet — 

" Who," said he, " shall counteract what is written in the 
book of fate .? Behold the prediction of the astrologers verified. 
Know, O king, that your daughter and I have long loved 
each other in secret. Behold in me the Pilgrim of Love! " 

These words were scarcely from his lips when the carpet 
rose in the air, bearing off the prince and the princess. The 
king and the physicians gazed after it with open mouths and 
straining eyes until it became a little speck on the white bosom 
of a cloud, and then disappeared in the blue vault of heaven. 

[208] 



• AHMED AL KAMEL 

The king in a rage summoned his treasurer. " How is 
this," said he, " that thou hast suffered an infidel to get 
possession of such a tahsman ? " 

"Alas, sir, we knew not its nature, nor could we decipher the 
inscription of the box. If it be indeed the carpet of the throne 
of the wise Solomon, it is possessed of magic power, and can 
transport its owner from place to place through the air." 

The king assembled a mighty army, and set off for Granada 
in pursuit of the fugitives. His march was long and toilsome. 
Encamping in the Vega, he sent a herald to demand restitu- 
tion of his daughter. The king himself came forth with all 
his court to meet him. In the king he beheld the real min- 
strel, for Ahmed had succeeded to the throne on the death 
of his father, and the beautiful Aldegonda was his sultana. 

The Christian king was easily pacified when he found that 
his daughter was suffered to continue in her faith ; not that he 
was particularly pious, but religion is always a point of pride 
and etiquette with princes. Instead of bloody battles, there 
was a succession of feasts and rejoicings, after which the king 
returned well pleased to Toledo, and the youthful couple 
continued to reign, as happily as wisely, in the Alhambra. 

It is proper to add that the owl and the parrot had severally 
followed the prince by easy stages to Granada ; the former 
travelling by night, and stopping at the various hereditary 
possessions of his family ; the latter figuring in gay circles 
of every town and city on his route. 

Ahmed gratefully requited the services which they had 
rendered on his pilgrimage. He appointed the owl his prime- 
minister, the parrot his master of ceremonies. It is needless 
to say that never was a realm more sagely administered, nor 
a court conducted with more exact punctilio. 

[209] 







LEGEND OF THE MOOR'S LEGACY 



"UST within the fortress of the Alhambra, in front of 
the royal palace, is a broad open esplanade, called the 
S=:y Place or Square of the Cisterns (La Plaza de los 
Aljibes), so called from being undermined by reservoirs of 
water, hidden from sight, and which have existed from the 
time of the Moors. At one corner of this esplanade is a 
Moorish well, cut through the living rock to a great depth, 
the water of which is cold as ice and clear as crystal. The 
wells made by the Moors are always in repute, for it is well 
known what pains they took to penetrate to the purest and 
sweetest springs and fountains. The one of which we now 
speak is famous throughout Granada, insomuch that water- 
carriers, some bearing great water-jars on their shoulders, 
others driving asses before them laden with earthen vessels, 
are ascending and descending the steep woody avenues of the 
Alhambra, from early dawn until a late hour of the night. 

Fountains and wells, ever since the scriptural days, have 
been noted gossiping-places in hot climates ; and at the well 

[_>io] 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

in question there is a kind of perpetual club kept up during 
the livelong day, by the invalids, old women, and other curious 
do-nothing folk of the fortress, who sit here on the stone 
benches, under an awning spread over the well to shelter the 
toll-gatherer from the sun, and dawdle over the gossip of the 
fortress, and question every water-carrier that arrives about 
the news of the city, and make long comments on everything 
they hear and see. Not an hour of the day but loitering 
housewives and idle maid-servants may be seen, lingering, 
with pitcher on head or in hand, to hear the last of the 
endless tattle of these worthies. 

Among the water-carriers who once resorted to this well, 
there was a sturdy, strong-backed, bandy-legged little fellow, 
named Pedro Gil, but called Peregil for shortness, who had 
begun business with merely a great earthen jar which he 
carried upon his shoulder ; by degrees he rose in the world, 
and was enabled to purchase an assistant of a correspondent 
class of animals, being a stout shaggy-haired donkey. On 
each side of this his long-eared aide-de-camp, in a kind of 
pannier, were slung his water-jars, covered with fig-leaves to 
protect them from the sun. There was not a more industrious 
water-carrier in all Granada, nor one more merry withal. 
The streets rang with his cheerful voice as he trudged after 
his donkey, singing forth the usual summer note that resounds 
through the Spanish towns: " Qtneji guiere agua — agiia 
mas f via que la nicvc f — "Who wants water — water 
colder than snow 1 Who wants water from the well of the 
Alhambra, cold as ice and clear as crystal .'' " When he 
served a customer with a sparkling glass, it was always with 
a pleasant word that caused a smile ; and if, perchance, it 
was a comely dame or dimpling damsel, it was always with a 

[2II] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

compliment to her beauty that was irresistible. Thus Peregil 
the Gallego was noted throughout all Granada for being one 
of the civilest, pleasantest, and happiest of mortals. Yet it is 
not he who sings loudest and jokes most that has the lightest 
heart. Under all this air of merriment, honest Peregil had 
his Cares and troubles. He had a large family of ragged 
children to support, who were hungry and clamorous as a 
nest of young swallows, and beset him with their outcries for 
food whenever he came home of an evening. He had a help- 
mate, too, who was anything but a help to him. She had 
been a village beauty before marriage, noted for her skill at 
dancing the bolero and rattling the castanets ; and she still 
retained her early propensities, spending the hard earnings 
of honest Peregil in frippery, and laying the very donkey 
under requisition for junketing parties into the country on 
Sundays and saints' days, and those innumerable holidays, 
which are rather more numerous in Spain than the days of 
the week. With all this she was a little of a slattern, some- 
thing more of a lie-abed, and, above all, a gossip of the first 
water ; neglecting house, household, and everything else, to 
loiter slipshod in the houses of her gossip neighbors. 

He, however, who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, 
accommodates the yoke of matrimony to the submissive 
neck. Peregil bore all the heavy dispensations of wife and 
children with as meek a spirit as his donkey bore the water- 
jars ; and, however he might shake his ears in private, 
never ventured to question the household virtues of his 
slattern spouse. 

He loved his children, too, even as an owl loves its owlets, 
seeing in them his own image multiplied and perpetuated ; 
for they were a sturdy, long-backed, bandy-legged little brood. 

[21.] 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

The great pleasure of honest Peregil was, whenever he could 
afford himself a scanty holiday, and had a handful of niara- 
%'cdis to spare, to take the whole litter forth with him, some 
in his arms, some tugging at his skirts, and some trudging 
at his heels, and to treat them to a gambol among the orchards, 
of the Vega, while his wife was dancing with her holiday 
friends in the Angosturas of the Darro. 

It was a late hour one summer night, and most of the 
water-carriers had desisted from their toils. The day had 
been uncommonly sultry ; the night was one of those deli- 
cious moonlights which tempt the inhabitants of southern 
climes to indemnify themselves for the heat and inaction of 
the day, by lingering in the open air, and enjoying its tem- 
pered sweetness until after midnight. Customers for water 
were therefore still abroad. Peregil, like a considerate, pains- 
taking father, thought of his hungry children. "' One more 
journey to the well," said he to himself, " to earn a Sunday's 
piichero for the little ones." So saying, he trudged manfully 
up the steep avenue of the Alhambra, singing as he went, 
and now and then bestowing a hearty thwack with a cudgel 
on the flanks of his donkey, either by way of cadence to the 
song, or refreshment to the animal ; for dry blows serve in 
lieu of provender in Spain for all beasts of burden. 

When arrived at the well, he found it deserted by every 
one except a solitary stranger in Moorish garb, seated on a 
stone bench in the moonlight. Peregil paused at first and 
regarded him with surprise, not unmixed with awe, but the 
Moor feebly beckoned him to approach. "" I am faint and ill," 
said he ; "aid me to return to the city, and I will pay thee 
double what thou couldst gain by thy jars of water." 

The honest heart of the little water-carrier was touched 

[213] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

with compassion at the appeal of the stranger. " God for- 
bid," said he, "that I should ask fee or reward for doing a 
common act of humanity." He accordingly helped the Moor 
on his donkey, and set off slowly for Granada, the poor 
Moslem being so weak that it was necessary to hold him on 
the animal to keep him from falling to the earth. 

When they entered the city the water-carrier demanded 
whither he should conduct him. " Alas ! " said the Moor, 
faintly, " I have neither home nor habitation ; I am a stran- 
ger in the land. Suffer me to lay my head this night beneath 
thy roof, and thou shalt be amply repaid." 

Honest Peregil thus saw himself unexpectedly saddled with 
an infidel guest, but he was too humane to refuse a night's 
shelter to a fellow-being in so forlorn a plight ; so he con- 
ducted the Moor to his dwelling. The children, who had 
sallied forth open-mouthed as usual on hearing the tramp of 
the donkey, ran back with affright when they beheld the tur- 
baned stranger, and hid themselves behind their mother. 
The latter stepped forth intrepidly, like a ruffling hen before 
her brood when a vagrant dog approaches. 

"What infidel companion," cried she, "is this you have 
brought home at this late hour to draw upon us the eyes of 
the inquisition ? " 

"Be quiet, wife," replied the Gallego ; "here is a poor 
sick stranger, without friend or home ; wouldst thou turn 
him forth to perish in the streets .? " 

The wife would still have remonstrated, for although she 
lived in a hovel, she was a furious stickler for the credit of 
her house ; the little water-carrier, however, for once was 
stiffnecked, and refused to bend beneath the yoke. He as- 
sisted the poor Moslem to alight, and spread a mat and a 

[214] 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

sheep-skin for him, on the ground, in the coolest part of the 
house ; being the only kind of bed that his poverty afforded. 

In a little while the Moor was seized with violent convul- 
sions, which defied all the ministering skill of the simple 
water-carrier. The eye of the poor patient acknowledged his 
kindness. During an interval of his fits he called him to his 
side, and addressing him in a low voice : " My end," said 
he, " I fear is at hand. If I die, I bequeath you this box 
as a reward for your charity"; so saying, he opened his 
albornoz, or cloak, and showed a small box of sandal-wood, 
strapped round his body. " God grant, my friend," replied 
the worthy little Gallego, "that you may live many years to 
enjoy your treasure, whatever it may be." The Moor shook 
his head ; he laid his hand upon the box, and would have 
said something more concerning it, but his convulsions 
returned with increasing violence, and in a little while he 
expired. 

The water-carrier's wife was now as one distracted. " This 
comes," said she, "of your foolish good-nature, always run- 
ning into scrapes to oblige others. What will become of us 
when this corpse is found in our house } We shall be sent 
to prison as murderers ; and if we escape with our lives, we 
shall be ruined by notaries and algiiazils!' 

Poor Peregil was in equal tribulation, and almost repented 
himself of having done a good deed. At length a thought 
struck him. "It is not yet day," said he; "I can convey 
the dead body out of the city, and bury it in the sands on 
the banks of the Xenil. No one saw the Moor enter our 
dwelling, and no one will know anything of- his death." 

So said, so done. The wife aided him ; they rolled the 
body of the unfortunate Moslem in the mat on which he had 

[-^15] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

expired, laid it across the ass, and Peregil set out with it 
for the banks of the river. 

As ill-luck would have it, there lived opposite to the water- 
carrier a barber named Pedrillo Pedrugo, one of the most 
prying, tattling, and mischief-making of his gossip tribe. He 
was a weasel-faced, spider-legged varlet, supple and insinuat- 
ing ; the famous barber of Seville could not surpass him for 
his universal knowledge of the affairs of others, and he had 
no more power of retention than a sieve. It was said that 
he slept but with one eye at a time, and kept one ear uncov- 
ered, so that even in his sleep he might see and hear all 
that was going on. Certain it is, he was a sort of scandalous 
chronicle for the quidnuncs of Granada, and had more cus- 
tomers than all the rest of his fraternity. 

This meddlesome barber heard Peregil arrive at an unusual 
hour at night, and the exclamations of his wife and children. 
His head was instantly popped out of a little window which 
served him as a look-out, and he saw his neighbor assist a 
man in Moorish garb into his dwelling. This was so strange 
an occurrence that Pedrillo Pedrugo slept not a wink that 
night. Every five minutes he was at his loophole, watching 
the lights that gleamed through the chinks of his neighbor's 
door, and before daylight he beheld Peregil sally forth with 
his donkey unusually laden. 

The inquisitive barber was in a fidget ; he slipped on his 
clothes, and, stealing forth silently, followed the water-carrier 
at a distance, until he saw him dig a hole in the sandy bank 
of the Xenil, and bury something that had the appearance 
of a dead body. 

The barber hied him home, and fidgeted about his shop, 
setting everything upside down, until sunrise. He then took 

[216] 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

a basin under his arm, and sallied forth to the house of his 
daily customer the Alcalde. 

The Alcalde had just risen. Pedrillo Pedrugo seated him 
in a chair, threw a napkin round his neck, put a basin of hot 
water under his chin, and began to mollify his beard with 
his fingers. 

" Strange doings ! " said Pedrugo, who played barber and 
newsmonger at the same time, — " strange doings ! Robbery, 
and murder, and burial all in one night ! " 

"' Hey ! — how ! — what is that you say," cried the Alcalde. 

" I say," replied the barber, rubbing a piece of soap over 
the nose and mouth of the dignitary, for a Spanish barber 
disdains to employ a brush, — " I say that Peregil the Gal- 
lego has robbed and murdered a Moorish Mussulman, and 
buried him, this blessed night. lilaldita sea la Jioche ; — 
Accursed be the night for the same ! " 

" But how do you know all this .'' " demanded the Alcalde. 

"' Be patient, Senor, and you shall hear all about it," 
replied Pedrillo, taking him by the nose and sliding a razor 
over his cheek. He then recounted all that he had seen, 
going through both operations at the same time, shaving 
his beard, washing his chin, and wiping him dry with a 
dirty napkin, while he was robbing, murdering, and burying 
the Moslem. 

Now it so happened that this Alcalde was one of the most 
overbearing, and at the same time most griping and corrupt 
curmudgeons in all Granada. It could not be denied, how- 
ever, that he set a high value upon justice, for he sold it at 
its weight in gold. He presumed the case in point to be one 
of murder and robbery ; doubtless there must be a rich spoil ; 
how was it to be secured into the legitimate hands of the law t 

[217] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

for as to merely entrapping the delinquent — that would be 
feeding the gallows ; but entrapping the booty — that would 
be enriching the judge, and such, according to his creed, was 
the great end of justice. So thinking, he summoned to his 
presence his trustiest algiiasil — a gaunt, hungry-looking 
varlet, clad, according to the custom of his order, in the 
ancient Spanish garb, a broad black beaver turned up at its 
sides ; a quaint _ruff ; a small black cloak dangling from his 
shoulders ; rusty black under-clothes that set off his spare 
wiry frame, while in his hand he bore a slender white wand, 
the dreaded insignia of his office. Such was the legal blood- 
hound of the ancient Spanish breed, that he put upon the 
traces of the unlucky water-carrier, and such was his speed 
and certainty, that he was upon the haunches of poor Peregil 
before he had returned to his dwelling, and brought both 
him and his donkey before the dispenser of justice. 

The Alcalde bent upon him one of the most terrific frowns. 
" Hark ye, culprit ! " roared he, in a voice that made the 
knees of the little Gallego smite together, — "hark ye, cul- 
prit ! there is no need of denying thy guilt, everything is 
known to me. A gallows is the proper reward for the crime 
thou hast committed, but I am merciful, and readily listen 
to reason. The man that has been murdered in thy house 
was a Moor, an infidel, the enemy of our faith. It was doubt- 
less in a fit of religious zeal that thou hast slain him. I will 
be indulgent, therefore ; render up the property of which 
thou hast robbed him, and we will hush the matter up." 

The poor water-carrier called upon all the saints to witness 
his innocence ; alas ! not one of them appeared ; and if they 
had the Alcalde would have disbelieved the whole calendar. 
The water-carrier related the whole story of the dying Moor 

[218] 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

with the straightforward simplicity of truth, but it was all in 
vain. " Wilt thou persist in saying," demanded the judge, 
" that this Moslem had neither gold nor jewels, which were 
the object of thy cupidity ? " 

" As I hope to be saved, your worship," replied the water- 
carrier, " he had nothing but a small box of sandal- wood, 
which he bequeathed to me in reward for my services." 

' ' A box of sandal-wood ! a box of sandal-wood ! ' ' exclaimed 
the Alcalde, his eyes sparkling at the idea of precious jewels. 
" And where is this box ? where have you concealed it .^ " 

"An '.it please your grace," replied the water-carrier, "it 
is in one of the panniers of my mule, and heartily at the 
service of your worship." 

He had hardly spoken the words, when the keen algjiasil 
darted off, and reappeared in an instant with the mysterious 
box of sandal-wood. The Alcalde opened it with an eager 
and trembling hand ; all pressed forward to gaze upon the 
treasure it was expected to contain ; when, to their disap- 
pointment, nothing appeared within, but a parchment scroll, 
covered with Arabic characters, and an end of a waxen taper. 

When there is nothing to be gained by the conviction of 
a prisoner, justice, even in Spain, is apt to be impartial. The 
Alcalde, having recovered from his disappointment, and found 
that there was really no booty in the case, now listened dis- 
passionately to the explanation of the water-carrier, which 
was corroborated by the testimony of his wife. Being con- 
vinced, therefore, of his innocence, he discharged him from 
arrest ; nay, more, he permitted him to carry off the Moor's 
legacy, the box of sandal-wood and its contents, as the well- 
merited reward of his humanity ; but he retained his donkey 
in payment of costs and charges. 

[219] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Behold the unfortunate little Gallego reduced once more 
to the necessity of being his own water-carrier, and trudging 
up to the well of the Alhambra with a great earthen jar 
upon his shoulder. 

As he toiled up the hill in the heat of a summer noon, 
his usual good-hunior forsook him. " Dog of an Alcalde ! " 
would he cry, " to rob a poor man of the means of his sub- 
sistence, of the best friend he had in the world ! " And then 
at the remembrance of the beloved companion of his labors, 
all the kindness of his nature would break forth. " Ah, donkey 
of my heart!" would he exclaim, resting his burden on a 
stone, and wiping the sweat from his brow, — "ah, donkey 
of my heart ! I warrant me thou thinkest of thy old master ! 
I warrant me thou missest the water-jars — poor beast ! " 

To add to his afflictions, his wife received him, on his 
return home, with whimperings and repinings ; she had 
clearly the vantage-ground of him, having warned him not 
to commit the egregious act of hospitality which had brought 
on him all these misfortunes ; and, like a knowing woman, 
she took every occasion to throw her superior sagacity in his 
teeth. If her children lacked food, or needed a new garment, 
she could answer with a sneer, "' Go to your father — he is 
heir to King Chico of the Alhambra : ask him to help you 
out of the Moor's strong box." 

Was ever poor mortal so soundly punished for having done 
a good action ? The unlucky Peregil was grieved in flesh and 
spirit, but still he bore meekly with the railings of his spouse. 
At length, one evening, when, after a hot day's toil, she 
taunted him in the usual manner, he lost all patience. He 
did not venture to retort upon her, but his eye rested upon 
the box of sandal-wood, which lay on a shelf with lid half 

[ 220 ] 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

open, as if laughing in mockery at his vexation. Seizing it 
up, he dashed it with indignation to the floor. " Unlucky 
was the day that I ever set eyes on thee," he cried, " or 
sheltered thy master beneath my roof ! " 

As the box struck the floor, the lid flew wide open, and 
the parchment scroll rolled forth. 

Peregil sat regarding the scroll for some time in moody 
silence. At length rallying his ideas, " Who knows," thought 
he, " but this writing may be of some importance, as the 
Moor seems to have guarded it with such care .-* " Picking it 
up therefore, he put it in his bosom, and the next morning, 
as he was crying water through the streets, he stopped at 
the shop of a Moor, a native of Tangiers, who sold trinkets 
and perfumery in the Zacati'n, and asked him to explain 
the contents. 

The Moor read the scroll attentively, then stroked his 
beard and smiled. "This manuscript," said he, "is a form 
of incantation for the recovery of hidden treasure that is 
under the power of enchantment. It is said to have such 
virtue that the strongest bolts and bars, nay the adamantine 
rock itself, will yield before it ! " 

" Bah ! " cried the little Gallego, " what is all that to me ? 
I am no enchanter, and know nothing of buried treasure." 
So saying, he shouldered his water-jar, left the scroll in the 
hands of the Moor, and trudged forward on his daily rounds. 

That evening, however, as he rested himself about twilight 
at the well of the Alhambra, he found a number of gossips 
assembled at the place, and their conversation, as is not un- 
usual at that shadowy hour, turned upon old tales and traditions 
of a supernatural nature. Being all poor as rats, they dwelt 
with peculiar fondness upon the popular theme of enchanted 

[221 ] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

riches left by the Moors in various parts of the Alhambra. 
Above all, they concurred in the belief that there were great 
treasures buried deep in the earth under the Tower of the 
Seven Floors. 

These stories made an unusual impression on the mind of 
the honest Peregil, and they sank deeper and deeper into his 
thoughts as he returned alone down the darkling avenues. 
" If, after all, there should be treasure hid beneath that 
tower ; and if the scroll I left with the Moor should enable 
me to get at it ! " In the sudden ecstasy of the thought he 
had well-nigh let fall his water-jar. 

That night he tumbled and tossed, and could scarcely get 
a wink of sleep for the thoughts that were bewildering his 
brain. Bright and early he repaired to the shop of the Moor, 
and told him all that was passing in his mind. "You can 
read Arabic," said he ; " suppose we go together to the 
tower, and try the effect of the charm ; if it fails, we are no 
worse off than before ; but if it succeeds, we will share 
equally all the treasure we may discover." 

" Hold," replied the Moslem ; " this writing is not sufficient 
of itself ; it must be read at midnight, by the light of a 
taper singularly compounded and prepared, the ingredients of 
which are not within my reach. Without such a taper the 
scroll is of no avail." 

" Say no more ! " cried the little Gallego ; "' I have such 
a taper at hand, and will bring it here in a moment." So 
saying, he hastened home, and soon returned with the end of 
yellow wax taper that he had found in the box of sandal-wood. 

The Moor felt it and smelled of it. " Here are rare and 
costly perfumes," said he, "combined with this yellow wax. 
This is the kind of taper specified in the scroll. While this 

[222] 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

burns, the strongest walls and most secret caverns will remain 
open. Woe to him, however, who lingers within until it be 
extinguished. He will remain enchanted with the treasure." 

It was now agreed between them to try the charm that 
very night. At a late hour, therefore, when nothing was 
stirring but bats and owls, they ascended the woody hill of 
the Alhambra, and approached that awful tower, shrouded 
by trees and rendered formidable by so many traditionary 
tales. By the light of a lantern they groped their way through 
bushes, and over fallen stones, to the door of a vault beneath 
the tower. With fear and trembling they descended a flight 
of steps cut into the rock. It led to an empty chamber, 
damp and drear, from which another flight of steps led to a 
deeper vault. In this way they descended four several flights, 
leading into as many vaults, one below the other, but the 
floor of the fourth was solid ; and though, according to 
tradition, there remained three vaults still below, it was said 
to be impossible to penetrate farther, the residue being shut 
up by strong enchantment. The air of this vault was damp 
and chilly, and had an earthy smell, and the light scarce cast 
forth any rays. They paused here for a time, in breathless 
suspense, until they faintly heard the clock of the watch-tower 
strike midnight ; upon this they lit the waxen taper, which 
diffused an odor of myrrh and frankincense and storax. 

The Moor began to read in a hurried voice. He had 
scarce finished when there was a noise as of subterraneous 
thunder. The earth shook, and the floor, yawning open, dis- 
closed a flight of steps. Trembling with awe, they descended, 
and by the light of the lantern found themselves in another 
vault covered with Arabic inscriptions. In the centre stood 
a great chest, secured with seven bands of steel, at each end of 

[223] 



■ THEALHAMBRA 

which sat an enchanted Moor in armor, but motionless as a 
statue, being controlled by the power of the incantation. 
Before the chest were several jars filled with gold and silver 
and precious stones. In the largest of these they thrust their 
arms up to the elbow, and at every dip hauled forth handfuls 
of broad yellow pieces of Moorish gold, or bracelets and 
ornaments of the same precious metal, while occasionally a 
necklace of Oriental pearl would stick to their fingers. Still 
they trembled and breathed short while cramming their 
pockets with the spoils ; and cast many a fearful glance at 
the two enchanted Moors, who sat grim and motionless, 
glaring upon them with unwinking eyes. At length, struck 
with a sudden panic at some fancied noise, they both rushed 
up the staircase, tumbled over one another into the upper 
apartment, overturned and extinguished the waxen taper, 
and the pavement again closed with a thundering sound. 

Filled with dismay, they did not pause until they had 
groped their way out of the tower, and beheld the stars 
shining through the trees. Then, seating themselves upon 
the grass, they divided the spoil, determining to content 
themselves for the present with this mere skimming of the 
jars, but to return on some future night and drain them to 
the bottom. To make sure of each other's good faith, also, 
they divided the talismans between them, one retaining the 
scroll and the other the taper ; this done, they set off with 
light hearts and well-lined pockets for Granada. 

As they wended their way down the hill, the shrewd Moor 
whispered a word of counsel in the ear of the simple little 
water-carrier. 

"Friend Peregil," said he, "all this affair must be kept 
a profound secret until we have secured the treasure, and 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

conveyed it out of harm's way. If a whisper of it gets to 
the ear of the Alcalde, we are undone ! " 

" Certainly," replied the Gallego, " nothing can be more 
true." 

"Friend Peregil," said the Moor, "you are a discreet 
man, and I make no doubt can keep a secret ; but you have 
a wife." 

" She shall not know a word of it," replied the little water- 
carrier, sturdily. 

" Enough," said the Moor, " I depend upon thy discretion 
and thy promise." 

Never was promise more positive and sincere ; but, alas ! 
what man can keep a secret from his wife ? Certainly not 
such a one as Peregil the water-carrier, who was one of the 
most loving and tractable of husbands. On his return home, 
he found his wife moping in a corner. " Mighty well," cried 
she as he entered, "you 've come at last, after rambling about 
until this hour of the night. I wonder you have not brought 
home another Moor as a house-mate." Then bursting into 
tears, she began to wring her hands and smite her breast. 
"Unhappy woman that I am! " exclaimed she, "what will 
become of me .'' My house stripped and plundered by lawyers 
and algitazils ; my husband a do-no-good, that no longer 
brings home bread to his family, but goes rambling about 
day and night, with infidel Moors ! O my children ! my 
children ! what will become of us .-• We shall all have to 
beg in the streets ! " 

Honest Peregil was so moved by the distress of his spouse 
that he could not help whimpering also. His heart was 
as full as his pocket, and not to be restrained. Thrusting 
his hand into the latter he hauled forth three or four broad 

[225] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

gold-pieces, and slipped them into her bosom. The poor 
woman stared with astonishment, and could not understand 
the meaning of this golden shower. Before she could recover 
from her surprise, the little Gallego drew forth a chain of 
gold and dangled it before her, capering with exultation, his 
mouth distended from ear to ear. 

" What hast thou been doing, Peregil ? " exclaimed the wife ; 
" surely thou hast not been committing murder and robbery ! " 

The idea scarce entered the brain of the poor woman than 
it became a certainty with her. She saw a prison and a 
gallows in the distance, and a little bandy-legged Gallego 
hanging pendent from it ; and, overcome by the horrors 
conjured up by imagination, fell into violent hysterics. 

What could the poor man do .? He had no other means 
of pacifying his wife, and dispelling the phantoms of her 
fancy, than by relating the whole story of his good fortune. 
This, however, he did not do until he had exacted from her 
the most solemn promise to keep it a profound secret from 
every living being. 

To describe her joy would be impossible. She flung her 
arms round the neck of her husband, and almost strangled 
him with her caresses. " Now, wife," exclaimed the little 
man, with honest exultation, "what say you now to the 
Moor's legacy .? Henceforth never abuse me for helping a 
fellow-creature in distress." 

The honest Gallego retired to his sheep-skin mat, and 
slept as soundly as if on a bed of down. Not so his wife. 
She emptied the whole contents of his pockets upon the 
mat, and sat counting gold pieces of Arabic coin, trying on 
necklaces and earrings, and fancying the figure she should 
one day make when permitted to enjoy her riches. 

[226] 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

On the following morning the honest Gallego took a broad 
golden coin, and repaired with it to a jeweller's shop in the 
Zacati'n to offer it for sale, pretending to have found it among 
the ruins of the Alhambra. The jeweller saw that it had an 
Arabic inscription, and was of the purest gold ; he offered, 
however, but a third of its value, with which the water-carrier 
was perfectly content. Peregil now bought new clothes for 
his little flock, and all kinds of toys, together with ample 
provisions for a hearty meal, and returning to his dwelling, 
set all his children dancing around him, while he capered 
in the midst, the happiest of fathers. 

The wife of the water-carrier kept her promise of secrecy 
with surprising strictness. For a whole day and a half she 
went about, with a look of mystery and a heart swelling 
almost to bursting ; yet she held her peace, though sur- 
rounded by her gossips. It is true she could not help giving 
herself a few airs, apologized for her ragged dress, and talked 
of ordering a new basqnina, all trimmed with gold lace and 
bugles, and a new lace mantilla. She threw out hints of her 
husband's intention of leaving off his trade of water-carrying, 
as it did not altogether agree with his health. In fact, she 
thought they should all retire to the country for the summer, 
that the children might have the benefit of the mountain air, 
for there was no living in the city in this sultry season. 

The neighbors stared at each other, and thought the poor 
woman had lost her wits ; and her airs and graces and elegant 
pretensions were the theme of universal scoffing and merri- 
ment among her friends the moment her back was turned. 

If she restrained herself abroad, however, she indemnified 
herself at home, and putting a string of rich Oriental pearls 
round her neck, Moorish bracelets on her arms, and an aigrette 

[227] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

of diamonds on her head, sailed backwards and forwards 
in her slattern rags about the room, now and then stopping 
to admire herself in a broken mirror. Nay, in the impulse 
of her simple vanity, she could not resist, on one occasion, 
showing herself at the window, to enjoy the effect of her 
finery on the passers by. 

As the fates would have it, Pedrillo Pedrugo, the meddle- 
some barber, was at this moment sitting idly in his shop on 
the opposite side of the street, when his ever-watchful eye 
caught the sparkle of a diamond. In an instant he was at 
his loophole reconnoitring the slattern spouse of the water- 
carrier, decorated with the splendor of an Eastern bride. 
No sooner had he taken an accurate inventory of her orna- 
ments, than he posted off with all speed to the Alcalde. In 
a little while the hungry algiiazil was again on the scent, and 
before the day was over the unfortunate Peregil was once 
more dragged into the presence of the judge. 

" How is this, villain ! " cried the Alcalde, in a furious 
voice. "You told me that the infidel who died in your house 
left nothing behind but an empty coffer, and now I hear of 
your wife flaunting in her rags decked out with pearls and 
diamonds. Wretch that thou art ! prepare to render up the 
spoils of thy miserable victim, and to swing on the gallows 
that is already tired of waiting for thee." 

The terrified water-carrier fell on his knees, and made a 
full relation of the marvellous manner in which he had 
gained his wealth. The Alcalde, the algnaail, and the in- 
quisitive barber listened with greedy ears to this Arabian 
tale of enchanted treasure. The algiiazil was despatched to 
bring the Moor who had assisted in the incantation. The 
Moslem entered, half frightened out of his wits at finding 

[22S] 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

himself in the hands of the harpies of the law. When he 
beheld the water-carrier standing with sheepish looks and 
downcast countenance, he comprehended the whole matter. 
"Miserable animal," said he, as he passed near him, "did 
I not warn thee against babbling to thy wife .-' " 

The story of the Moor coincided exactly with that of 
his colleague ; but the Alcalde affected to be slow of be- 
lief, and threw out menaces of imprisonment and rigorous 
investigation. 

" Softly, good Seiior Alcalde," said the Mussulman, who 
by this time had recovered his usual shrewdness and self- 
possession. " Let us not mar fortune's favors in the scramble 
for them. Nobody knows anything of this matter but our- 
selves ; let us keep the secret. There is wealth enough in 
the cave to enrich us all. Promise a fair division, and all 
shall be produced ; refuse, and the cave shall remain forever 
closed." 

The Alcalde consulted apart with the alg?ia;:il. The latter 
was an old fox in his profession. " Promise anything," said 
he, "until you get possession of the treasure. You may 
then seize upon the whole, and if he and his accomplice 
dare to murmur, threaten them with the fagot and the stake 
as infidels and sorcerers." 

The Alcalde relished the advice. Smoothing his brow and 
turning to the Moor: "This is a strange story," said he, 
" and may be true ; but I must have ocular proof of it. This 
very night you must repeat the incantation in my presence. 
If there be really such treasure, we will share it amicably be- 
tween us, and say nothing further of the matter ; if ye have 
deceived me, expect no mercy at my hands. In the mean- 
time you must remain in custody." 

[229] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The Moor and the water-carrier cheerfully agreed to these 
conditions, satisfied that the event would prove the truth of 
their words. 

Towards midnight the Alcalde sallied forth secretly, at- 
tended by the algiiasil and the meddlesome barber, all 
strongly armed. They conducted the Moor and the water- 
carrier as prisoners, and were provided with the stout 
donkey of the latter to bear off the expected treasure. They 
arrived at the tower without being observed, and tying the 
donkey to a fig-tree, descended into the fourth vault of 
the tower. 

The scroll was produced, the yellow waxen taper lighted, 
and the Moor read the form of incantation. The earth trem- 
bled as before, and the pavement opened with a thundering 
sound, disclosing the narrow flight of steps. The Alcalde, 
the alguazil, and the barber were struck aghast, and could 
not summon courage to descend. The Moor and the water- 
carrier entered the lower vault, and found the two Moors 
seated as before, silent and motionless. They removed two 
of the great jars, filled with golden coin and precious stones. 
The water-carrier bore them up one by one upon his shoul- 
ders, but though a strong-backed little man, and accustomed 
to carry burdens, he staggered beneath their weight, and 
found, when slung on each side of his donkey, they were 
as much as the animal could bear. 

" Let us be content for the present," said the Moor ; '" here 
is as much treasure as we can carry off without being per- 
ceived, and enough to make us all wealthy to our heart's 
desire." 

" Is there more treasure remaining behind } " demanded 
the Alcalde. 

[230] 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

" The greatest prize of all," said the Moor, " a huge coffer 
bound with bands of steel, and filled with pearls and precious 
stones," 

" Let us have up the coffer by all means," cried the grasp- 
ing Alcalde. 

" I will descend for no more," said the Moor, doggedly ; 
"enough is enough for a reasonable man — more is super- 
fluous," 

" And I," said the water-carrier, " will bring up no further 
burden to break the back of my poor donkey," 

Finding commands, threats, and entreaties equally vain, 
the Alcalde turned to his two adherents, "Aid me," said 
he, "to bring up the coffer, and its contents shall be di 
vided between us," So saying, he descended the steps, 
followed with trembling reluctance by the algtiazil and 
the barber. 

No sooner did the Moor behold them fairly earthed than 
he extinguished the yellow taper ; the pavement closed with 
its usual crash, and the three worthies remained buried 
beneath it. 

He then hastened up the different flights of steps, nor 
stopped until in the open air. The little water-carrier followed 
him as fast as his short legs would permit, 

" What hast thou done .'' " cried Peregil, as soon as he could 
recover breath, "The Alcalde and the other two are shut 
up in the vault," 

" It is the will of Allah ! " said the Moor, devoutly, 

" And will you not release them ,? " demanded the Gallego. 

" Allah forbid ! " replied the Moor, smoothing his beard. 
" It is written in the book of fate that they shall remain 
enchanted until some future adventurer arrive to break the 



THE ALHAMBRA 

charm. The will of God be done ! " so saying, he hurled 
the end of the waxen taper far among the gloomy thickets 
of the glen. 

There was now no remedy ; so the Moor and the water- 
carrier proceeded with the richly laden donkey toward the 
city, nor could honest Peregil refrain from hugging and kiss- 
ing his long-eared fellow-laborer, thus restored to him from 
the clutches of the law ; and, in fact, it is doubtful which 
gave the simple-hearted little man most joy at the moment, 
the gaining of the treasure, or the recovery of the donkey. 

The two partners in good luck divided their spoil amicably 
and fairly, except that the Moor, who had a little taste for 
trinketry, made out to get into his heap the most of the pearls 
and precious stones and other baubles, but then he always 
gave the water-carrier in lieu magnificent jewels of massy 
gold, of five times the size, with which the latter was heartily 
content. They took care not to linger within reach of acci- 
dents, but made off to enjoy their wealth undisturbed in other 
countries. The Moor returned to Africa, to his native city of 
Tangiers, and the Gallego, with his wife, his children, and 
his donkey, made the best of his way to Portugal. Here, 
under the admonition and tuition of his wife, he became a 
personage of some consequence, for she made the worthy 
little man array his long body and short legs in doublet and 
hose, with a feather in his hat and a sword by his side, and 
laying aside his familiar appellation of Peregil, assume the 
more sonorous title of Don Pedro Gil : his progeny grew up 
a thriving and merry-hearted, though short and bandy-legged 
generation, while Senora Gil, befringed, belaced, and betas- 
selled from her head to her heels, with glittering rings on 
every finger, became a model of slattern fashion and finery. 



THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

As to the Alcalde and his adjuncts, they remained shut 
up under the great Tower of the Seven Floors, and there 
they remain spellbound at the present day. Whenever there 
shall be a lack in Spain of meddling barbers, sharking algua- 
zils, and corrupt alcaldes, they may be sought after ; but if 
they have to wait until such time for their deliverance, there 
is danger of their enchantment enduring until doomsday. 



[233] 




LEGEND OF THE THREE BEAUTIFUL 
PRINCESSES 



N OLD times there reigned a Moorish king in Granada, 
whose name was Mohamed, to which his subjects added 
the appellation of El Hayzari, or "The Left-handed." 
Some say he was so called on account of his being really 
more expert with his sinister than his dexter hand ; others, 
because he was prone to take everything by the wrong end, 
or, in other words, to mar wherever he meddled. Certain it 
is, either through misfortune or mismanagement, he was con- 
tinually in trouble ; thrice was he driven from his throne, 
and on one occasion barely escaped to Africa with his life, 
in the disguise of a fisherman. Still he was as brave as he 
was blundering ; and though left-handed, wielded his cimeter 
to such purpose, that he each time re-established himself upon 
his throne by dint of hard fighting. Instead, however, of 

[234] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

learning wisdom from adversity, he hardened his neck, and 
stiffened his left arm in wilfulness. The evils of a public 
nature which he thus brought upon himself and his kingdom 
may be learned by those who will delve into the Arabian 
annals of Granada ; the present legend deals but with his 
domestic policy. 

As this Mohamed was one day riding forth with a train of 
his courtiers, by the foot of the mountain of Elvira, he met 
a band of horsemen returning from a foray into the land of 
the Christians. They were conducting a long string of mules 
laden with spoil, and many captives of both sexes, among 
whom the monarch was struck with the appearance of a 
beautiful damsel, richly attired, who sat weeping on a low 
palfrey and heeded not the consoling words of a duenna 
who rode beside her. 

The monarch was struck with her beauty, and, on inquiring 
of the captain of the troop, found that she was the daughter 
of the Alcalde of a frontier fortress, that had been surprised 
and sacked in the course of the foray. Mohamed claimed 
her as his royal share of the booty, and had her conveyed to 
the Alhambra. There everything was devised to soothe her 
melancholy ; and the monarch, more and more enamored, 
sought to make her his queen. The Spanish maid at first 
repulsed his addresses ; he was an infidel ; he was the open 
foe of her country ; what was worse, he was stricken in years ! 

The monarch, finding his assiduities of no avail, determined 
to enlist in his favor the dueujia, who had been captured with 
the lady. She was an Andalusian by birth, whose Christian 
name is forgotten, being mentioned in Moorish legends by 
no other appellation than that of the discreet Kadiga ; and 
discreet in truth she was, as her whole history makes evident. 

[^35] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

No sooner had the Moorish king held a Httle private conver- 
sation with her, than she saw at once the cogency of his rea- 
soning, and undertook his cause with her young mistress. 

"" Go to, now ! " cried she ; " what is there in all this to 
weep and wail about ? Is it not better to be mistress of this 
beautiful palace, with all its gardens and fountains, than to 
be shut up within your father's old frontier tower ? As to 
this Mohamed being an infidel, what is that to the purpose ? 
You marry him, not his religion ; and if he is waxing a little 
old, the sooner will you be a widow, and mistress of yourself ; 
at any rate, you are in his power, and must either be a queen 
or a slave." 

The arguments of the discreet Kadiga prevailed. The 
Spanish lady dried her tears, and became the spouse of 
Mohamed the Left-handed ; she even conformed, in appear- 
ance, to the faith of her royal husband ; and her discreet 
duenna immediately became a zealous convert to the Moslem 
doctrines : it was then the latter received the Arabian name 
of Kadiga, and was permitted to remain in the confidential 
employ of her mistress. 

In time the Moorish king was made the proud and happy 
father of three lovely daughters, all born at the same time. 

As usual with all Moslem monarchs, he summoned his 
astrologers on this happy event. They cast the nativities of 
the three princesses, and shook their heads. "' Daughters, 
O king!" said they, "are always precarious property; but 
these will most need your watchfulness when they arrive at 
a marriageable age ; at that time gather them under your 
wings, and trust them to no other guardianship." 

Mohamed the Left-handed was acknowledged to be a wise 
king by his courtiers, and was certainly so considered by 

[236] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

himself. The prediction of the astrologers caused him but 
little disquiet, trusting to his ingenuity to guard his daughters 
and outwit the Fates. 

The queen died within a few years, bequeathing her infant 
daughters to his love, and to the fidelity of the discreet 
Kadiga. 

Many years had yet to elapse before the princesses would 
arrive at that period of danger — the marriageable age. " It 
is good, however, to be cautious in time," said the shrewd 
monarch ; so he determined to have them reared in the royal 
castle of Salobrena. This was a sumptuous palace, incrusted, 
as it were, in a powerful Moorish fortress on the summit of 
a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was a royal 
retreat, in which the Moslem monarchs shut up such of their 
relatives as might endanger their safety ; allowing them all 
kinds of luxuries and amusements, in the midst of which 
they passed their lives in voluptuous indolence. 

Here the princesses remained, immured from the world, 
but surrounded by enjoyment, and attended by female slaves 
who anticipated their wishes. They had delightful gardens 
for their recreation, filled with the rarest fruits and flowers, 
with aromatic groves and perfumed baths. On three sides 
the castle looked down upon a rich valley, enamelled with 
all kinds of culture, and bounded by the lofty Alpuxarra 
mountains ; on the other side it overlooked the broad 
sunny sea. 

In this delicious abode, in a propitious climate, and under 
a cloudless sky, the three princesses grew up into wondrous 
beauty ; but though all reared alike, they gave early tokens 
of diversity of character. Their names were Zayda, Zorayda, 
and Zorahayda. 

[237] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Zayda, the eldest, was of an intrepid spirit, and took the 
lead of her sisters in everything, as she had done in entering 
into the world. She was curious and inquisitive, and fond of 
getting at the bottom of things. 

Zorayda had a great feeling for beauty, which was the 
reason, no doubt, of her delighting to regard her own image 
in a mirror or a fountain, and of her fondness for flowers, 
and jewels, and other tasteful ornaments. 

As to Zorahayda, the youngest, she was soft and timid, 
and extremely sensitive, with a vast deal of disposable ten- 
derness, as was evident from her number of pet-flowers, and 
pet-birds, and pet-animals, all of which she cherished with 
the fondest care. Her amusements, too, were of a gentle 
nature, and mixed up with musing and reverie. She would 
sit for hours in a balcony, gazing on the sparkling stars of 
a summer's night, or on the sea when lit up by the moon ; 
and at such times, the song of a fisherman, faintly heard 
from the beach, or the notes of a Moorish flute from some 
gliding bark, sufficed to elevate her feelings into ecstasy. 
The least uproar of the elements, however, filled her with 
dismay ; and a clap of thunder was enough to throw her into 
a swoon. 

Years rolled on smoothly and serenely ; the discreet Kadiga, 
to whom the princesses were confided, was faithful to her 
trust, and attended them with unremitting care. 

The castle of Salobrena, as has been said, was built upon 
a hill on the sea-coast. One of the exterior walls straggled 
down the profile of the hill, until it reached a jutting rock 
overhanging the sea, with a narrow sandy beach at its foot, 
laved by the rippling billows. A small watch-tower on this 
rock had been fitted up as a pavilion, with latticed windows 

[238] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

to admit the sea-breeze. Here the princesses used to pass 
the sultry hours of mid-day. 

The curious Zayda was one day seated at a window of the 
pavihon, as her sisters, reclining on ottomans, were taking 
the siesta or noontide slumber. Her attention was attracted 
to a galley which came coasting along, with measured strokes 
of the oar. As it drew near, she observed that it was filled 
with armed men. The galley anchored at the foot of the 
tower, A number of Moorish soldiers landed on the narrow 
beach, conducting several Christian prisoners. The curious 
Zayda awakened her sisters, and all three peeped cautiously 
through the close jalousies of the lattice which screened 
them from sight. Among the prisoners were three Spanish 
cavaliers, richly dressed. They were in the flower of youth, 
and of noble presence ; and the lofty manner in which they 
carried themselves, though loaded with chains and surrounded 
with enemies, bespoke the grandeur of their souls. The prin- 
cesses gazed with intense and breathless interest. Cooped up 
as they had been in this castle among female attendants, seeing 
nothing of the male sex but black slaves, or the rude fisher- 
men of the sea-coast, it is not to be wondered at that the ap- 
pearance of three gallant cavaliers, in the pride of youth and 
manly beauty, should produce some commotion in their bosom. 

" Did ever nobler being tread the earth than that cavalier 
in crimson ? " cried Zayda, the eldest of the sisters. " See 
how proudly he bears himself, as though all around him 
were his slaves ! " 

" But notice that one in green ! " exclaimed Zorayda. 
" What grace ! what elegance ! what spirit ! " 

The gentle Zorahayda said nothing, but she secretly gave 
preference to the cavalier in blue. 

[239] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The princesses remained gazing until the prisoners were 
out of sight ; then, heaving long-drawn sighs, they turned 
round, looked at each other for a moment, and sat down, 
musing and pensive, on their ottomans. 

The discreet Kadiga found them in this situation. They 
related what they had seen ; and even the withered heart of 
the duenna was warmed. " Poor youths ! " exclaimed she, 
" I '11 warrant their captivity makes many a fair and high-born 
lady's heart ache in their native land ! Ah ! my children, 
you have little idea ot the life these cavaliers lead in their 
own country. Such prankling at tournaments ! such devotion 
to the ladies ! such courting and serenading ! " 

The curiosity of Zayda was fully aroused ; she was insatiable 
in her inquiries, and drew from the duenna the most animated 
pictures of the scenes of her youthful days and native land. 
The beautiful Zorayda bridled up, and slyly regarded herself 
in a mirror, when the theme turned upon the charms of 
the Spanish ladies ; while Zorahayda suppressed a struggling 
sigh at the mention of moonlight serenades. 

Every day the curious Zayda renewed her inquiries, 
and every day the sage duenna repeated her stories, which 
were listened to with profound interest, though with frequent 
sighs, by her gentle auditors. The discreet old woman awoke 
at length to the mischief she might be doing. She had 
been accustomed to think of the princesses only as children ; 
but they had imperceptibly ripened beneath her eye, and 
now bloomed before her three lovely damsels of the marriage- 
able age. It is time, thought the duenna, to give notice 
to the king. 

Mohamed the Left-handed' was seated one morning on a 
divan in a cool hall of the Alhambra, when a slave arrived 

[240] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

from the fortress of Salobrena, with a message from the 
sage Kadiga, congratulating him on the anniversary of his 
daughters' birthday. The slave at the same time presented 
a delicate little basket, decorated with flowers, within which, 
on a couch of vine and fig-leaves, lay a peach, an apricot, 
and a nectarine, with their bloom and down and dewy 
sweetness upon them, and all in the early stage of tempting 
ripeness. The monarch was versed in the Oriental language 
of fruits and flowers, and rapidly divined the meaning of 
this emblematical offering. 

" So," said he, " the critical period pointed out by the 
astrologers is arrived : my daughters are at a marriageable 
age. What is to be done ? They are shut up from the eyes 
of men ; they are under the eyes of the discreet Kadiga, — 
all very good ; but still they are not under my own eye, as 
was prescribed by the astrologers. I must gather them under 
my wing, and trust to no other guardianship." 

So saying, he ordered that a tower of the Alhambra should 
be prepared for their reception, and departed at the head of 
his guards for the fortress of Salobrena, to conduct them 
home in person. 

About three years had elapsed since Mohamed had beheld 
his daughters, and he could scarcely credit his eyes at the 
wonderful change which that small space of time had made 
in their appearance. During the interval, they had passed 
that wondrous boundary line in female life which separates 
the crude, unformed, and thoughtless girl from the blooming, 
blushing, meditative woman. It is like passing from the flat, 
bleak, uninteresting plains of La Mancha to the voluptuous 
valleys and swelling hills of Andalusia. 

Zayda was tall and finely formed, with a lofty demeanor 
[241] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

and a penetrating eye. She entered with a stately and 
decided step, and made a profound reverence to Mohamed, 
treating him more as her sovereign than her father. Zorayda 
was of the middle height, with an alluring look and swimming 
gait, and a sparkling beauty, heightened by the assistance of 
the toilette. She approached her father with a smile, kissed 
his hand, and saluted him with several stanzas from a popular 
Arabian poet, with which the monarch was delighted. Zora- 
hayda was shy and timid, smaller than her sisters, and with 
a beauty of that tender, beseeching kind which looks for 
fondness and protection. She was little fitted to command, 
like her elder sister, or to dazzle, like the second, but was 
rather formed to creep to the bosom of manly affection, to 
nestle within it, and be content. She drew near to her father, 
with a timid and almost faltering step, and would have 
taken his hand to kiss ; but on looking up into his face, and 
seeing it beaming with a paternal smile, the tenderness of 
her nature broke forth, and she threw herself upon his neck. 

Mohamed the Left-handed surveyed his blooming daughters 
with mingled pride and perplexity, for while he exulted in 
their charms, he bethought himself of the prediction of the 
astrologers. " Three daughters ! three daughters ! " muttered 
he repeatedly to himself, "and all of a marriageable age! 
Here 's tempting Hesperian fruit, that requires a dragon 
watch ! " 

He prepared for his return to Granada, by sending heralds 
before him, commanding every one to keep out of the road 
by which he was to pass, and that all doors and windows 
should be closed at the approach of the princesses. This 
done, he set forth, escorted by a troop of black horsemen 
of hideous aspect, and clad in shining armor. 

[242 ] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

The princesses rode beside the king, closely veiled, on 
beautiful white palfreys, with velvet caparisons, embroidered 
with gold, and sweeping the ground ; the bits and stirrups 
were of gold, and the silken bridles adorned with pearls and 
precious stones. The palfreys were covered with little silver 
bells, which made the most musical tinkling as they ambled 
gently along. Woe to the unlucky wight, however, who 
lingered in the way when he heard the tinkling of these 
bells ! — the guards were ordered to cut him down without 
mercy. 

The cavalcade was drawing near to Granada, when it over- 
took, on the banks of the river Xenil, a small body of Moorish 
soldiers with a convoy of prisoners. It was too late for the 
soldiers to get out of the way, so they threw themselves on 
their faces on the earth, ordering their captives to do the 
like. Among the prisoners were the three identical cavaliers 
whom the princesses had seen from the pavilion. They either 
did not understand, or were too haughty to obey the order, 
and remained standing and gazing upon the cavalcade as it 
approached. 

The ire of the monarch was kindled at this flagrant defi- 
ance of his orders. Drawing his cimeter, and pressing for- 
ward, he was about to deal a left-handed blow that might 
have been fatal to at least one of the gazers, when the prin- 
cesses crowded round him, and implored mercy for the pris- 
oners ; even the timid Zorahayda forgot her shyness, and 
became eloquent in their behalf. Mohamed paused, with 
uplifted cimeter, when the captain of the guard threw him- 
self at his feet. "Let not your highness," said he, " do a 
deed that may cause great scandal throughout the kingdom. 
These are three brave and noble Spanish knights, who have 

[243] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

been taken in battle, fighting like lions ; they are of high 
birth, and may bring great ransoms." " Enough ! " said the 
king. '" I will spare their lives, but punish their audacity — 
let them be taken to the Vermilion Towers, and put to hard 
labor." 

Mohamed was making one of his usual left-handed blunders. 
In the tumult and agitation of this blustering scene, the veils 
of the three princesses had been thrown back, and the radi- 
ance of their beauty revealed ; and in prolonging the parley, 
the king had given that beauty time to have its full effect. 
In those days people fell in love much more suddenly than 
at present, as all ancient stories make manifest. It is not a 
matter of wonder, therefore, that the hearts of the three cava- 
liers were completely captured ; especially as gratitude was 
added to their admiration. It is a little singular, however, 
though no less certain, that each of them was enraptured 
with a several beauty. As to the princesses, they were more 
than ever struck with the noble demeanor of the captives, 
and cherished in their breasts all that they had heard of their 
valor and noble lineage. 

The cavalcade resumed its march ; the three princesses 
rode pensively along on their tinkling palfreys, now and then 
stealing a glance behind in search of the Christian captives, 
and the latter were conducted to their allotted prison in the 
Vermilion Towers. 

The residence provided for the princesses was one of the 
most dainty that fancy could devise. It was in a tower some- 
what apart from the main palace of the Alhambra, though 
connected with it by the wall which encircled the whole sum- 
mit of the hill. On one side it looked into the interior of the 
fortress, and had, at its foot, a small garden filled with the 

[244] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

rarest flowers. On the other side it overlooked a deep em- 
bowered ravine separating the grounds of the Alhambra from 
those of the GeneraHfe. The interior of the tower was divided 
into small fairy apartments, beautifully ornamented in the Ught 
Arabian style, surrounding a lofty hall, the vaulted roof of 
which rose almost to the summit of the tower. The walls 
and ceilings of the hall were adorned with arabesque and 
fretwork, sparkling with gold and with brilliant pencilling. In 
the centre of the marble pavement was an alabaster fountain, 
set round with aromatic shrubs and flowers, and throwing up 
a jet of water that cooled the whole edifice and had a lulling 
sound. Round the hall were suspended cages of gold and 
silver wire, containing singing-birds of the finest plumage 
or sweetest note. 

The princesses had been represented as always cheerful 
when in the castle of the Salobrefia ; the king had expected 
to see them enraptured with the Alhambra. To his surprise, 
however, they began to pine, and grow melancholy, and dis- 
satisfied with everything around them. The flowers yielded 
them no fragrance, the song of the nightingale disturbed their 
night's rest, and they were out of all patience with the alabaster 
fountain, with its eternal drop-drop and splash-splash, from 
morning till night and from night till morning. 

The king, who was somewhat of a testy, tyrannical dispo- 
sition, took this at first in high dudgeon ; but he reflected 
that his daughters had arrived at an age when the female 
mind expands and its desires augment. " They are no longer 
children," said he to himself, "they are women grown, and 
require suitable objects to interest them." He put in requisi- 
tion, therefore, all the dressmakers, and the jewellers, and the 
artificers in gold and silver throughout the Zacati'n of Granada, 

[345] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

and the princesses were overwhelmed with robes of silk, and 
tissue, and brocade, and cashmere shawls, and necklaces of 
pearls and diamonds, and rings, and bracelets, and anklets, 
and all manner of precious things. 

All, however, was of no avail ; the princesses continued 
pale and languid in the midst of their finery, and looked like 
three blighted rose-buds, drooping from one stalk. The king 
was at his wits' end. He had in general a laudable confi- 
dence in his own judgment, and never took advice. " The 
whims and caprices of three marriageable damsels, however, 
are sufficient," said he, " to puzzle the shrewdest head." So 
for once in his life he called in the aid of counsel. 

The person to whom he applied was the experienced 
duenna. 

" Kadiga," said the king, " I know you to be one of the 
most discreet women in the whole world, as well as one of 
the most trustworthy ; for these reasons I have always con- 
tinued you about the persons of my daughters. Fathers 
cannot be too wary in whom they repose such confidence ; I 
now wish you to find out the secret malady that is preying 
upon the princesses, and to devise some means of restoring 
them to health and cheerfulness." 

Kadiga promised implicit obedience. In fact she knew 
more of the malady of the princesses than they themselves. 
Shutting herself up with them, however, she endeavored to 
insinuate herself into their confidence. 

" My dear children, what is the reason you are so dismal 
and downcast in so beautiful a place, where you have every- 
thing that heart can wish } " 

The princesses looked vacantly round the apartment, and 
sighed. 

[246] 



THE THREE BEAUTIEUL PRINCESSES 

" What more, then, would you have ? Shall I get you the 
wonderful parrot that talks all languages, and is the delight 
of Granada ? ' ' 

" Odious ! " exclaimed the princess Zayda. " A horrid, 
screaming bird, that chatters words without ideas : one must 
be without brains to tolerate such a pest." 

" Shall I send for a monkey from the rock of Gibraltar, to 
divert you with his antics ? " 

"A monkey! faugh!" cried Zorayda ; "the detestable 
mimic of man, I hate the nauseous animal." 

" What say you to the famous black singer Casem, from 
Morocco .'' They say he has a voice as fine as a w^oman's." 

" I am terrified at the sight of these black slaves," said the 
delicate Zorahayda ; " besides I have lost all relish for music." 

"Ah! my child, you would not say so," replied the old 
woman, slyly, " had you heard the music I heard last eve- 
ning, from the three Spanish cavaliers whom we met on our 
journey. But bless me, children 1 What is the matter that 
you blush so and are in such a flutter ? " 

" Nothing, nothing, good mother ; pray proceed," 

" Well ; as I was passing by the Vermilion Towers last 
evening, I saw the three cavaliers resting after their day's 
labor. One was playing on the guitar, so gracefully, and the 
others sang by turns ; and they did it in such style, that the 
very guards seemed like statues, or men enchanted. Allah 
forgive me ! I could not help being moved at hearing the 
songs of my native country. And then to see three such 
noble and handsome youths in chains and slavery I " 

Here the kind-hearted old woman could not restrain her tears, 

" Perhaps, mother, you could manage to procure us a sight 
of these cavaliers," said Zayda. 

[247] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

"I think," said Zorayda, "a little music would be quite 
reviving." 

The timid Zorahayda said nothing, but threw her arms 
round the neck of Kadiga. 

" Mercy on me ! " exclaimed the discreet old woman, 
" what are you talking of, my children ? Your father would 
be the death of us all if he heard of such a thing. To be 
sure, these cavaliers are evidently well-bred and high-minded 
youths ; but what of that ? they are the enemies of our faith, 
and you must not even think of them but with abhorrence." 

There is an admirable intrepidity in the female will, par- 
ticularly when about the marriageable age, which is not to 
be deterred by dangers and prohibitions. The princesses 
hung round their old duenna, and coaxed, and entreated, 
and declared that a refusal would break their hearts. 

What could she do ? She was certainly the most discreet 
old woman in the whole world, and one of the most faithful 
servants to the king ; but was she to see three beautiful prin- 
cesses break their hearts for the mere tinkling of a guitar 1 
Besides, though she had been so long among the Moors, 
and changed her faith in imitation of her mistress, like a 
trusty follower, yet she was a Spaniard born, and had the 
lingerings of Christianity in her heart. So she set about to 
contrive how the wish of the princesses might be gratified. 

The Christian captives, confined in the Vermilion Towers, 
were under the charge of a big-whiskered, broad-shouldered 
renegade, called Hussein Baba, who was reputed to have a 
most itching palm. She went to him privately, and slipping 
a broad piece of gold into his hand, " Hussein Baba," said 
she, '" my mistresses the three princesses, who are shut up in 
the tower, and in sad want of amusement, have heard of the 

[248] 



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/•I 



THE ALHAMBRA 

musical talents of the three Spanish cavaliers, and are desir- 
ous of hearing a specimen of their skill. I am sure you are 
too kind-hearted to refuse them so innocent a gratification." 

" What ! and to have my head set grinning over the gate 
of my own tower ! for that would be the reward, if the king 
should discover it." 

"' No danger of anything of the kind ; the affair may be 
managed so that the whim of the princesses may be gratified, 
and their father be never the wiser. You know the deep 
ravine outside of the walls which passes immediately below 
the tower. Put the three Christians to work there, and at 
the intervals of their labor, let them play and sing, as if for 
their own recreation. In this way the princesses will be able 
to hear them from the windows of the tower, and you may 
be sure of their paying well for your compliance." 

As the good old woman concluded her harangue, she 
kindly pressed the rough hand of the renegado, and left 
within it another piece of gold. 

Her eloquence was irresistible. The very next day the 
three cavaliers were put to work in the ravine. During the 
noontide heat, when their fellow-laborers were sleeping in 
the shade, and the guard nodding drowsily at his post, they 
seated themselves among the herbage at the foot of the 
tower, and sang a Spanish roundelay to the accompaniment 
of the guitar. 

The glen was deep, the tower was high, but their voices 
rose distinctly in the stillness of the summer noon. The 
princesses listened from their balcony ; they had been taught 
the Spanish language by their duenna, and were moved by 
the tenderness of the song. The discreet Kadiga, on the 
contrary, was terribly shocked, "Allah preserve us ! " cried 

[250] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

she, " they are singing a love-ditty, addressed to yourselves. 
Did ever mortal hear of such audacity ? I will run to the 
slave-master, and have them soundly bastinadoed." 

"What ! bastinado such gallant cavaliers, and for singing so 
charmingly! " The three beautiful princesses were filled with 
horror at the idea. With all her virtuous indignation, the good 
old woman was of a placable nature, and easily appeased. Be- 
sides, the music seemed to have a beneficial effect upon her 
young mistresses. A rosy bloom had already come to their 
cheeks, and their eyes began to sparkle. She made no further 
objection, therefore, to the amorous ditty of the cavaliers. 

When it was finished, the princesses remained silent for 
a time ; at length Zorayda took up a lute, and with a sweet, 
though faint and trembling voice, warbled a little Arabian 
air, the burden of which was, " The rose is concealed among 
her leaves, but she listens with delight to the song of the 
nightingale," 

From this time forward the cavaliers worked almost daily 
in the ravine. The considerate Hussein Baba became more 
and more indulgent, and daily more prone to sleep at his 
post. For some time a vague intercourse was kept up by 
popular songs and romances, which in some measure re- 
sponded to each other, and breathed the feelings of the 
parties. By degrees the princesses showed themselves at the 
balcony, when they could do so without being perceived by 
the guards. They conversed with the cavaliers also, by means 
of flowers, with the symbolical language of which they were 
mutually acquainted ; the difficulties of their intercourse added 
to its charms, and strengthened the passion they had so 
singularly conceived ; for love delights to struggle with 
difficulties, and thrives the most hardily on the scantiest soil. 

[-^51] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The change effected in the looks and spirits of the prin- 
cesses by this secret intercourse, surprised and gratified the 
left-handed king ; but no one was more elated than the 
discreet Kadiga, who considered it all owing to her able 
management. 

At length there was an interruption in this telegraphic cor- 
respondence ; for several days the cavaliers ceased to make 
their appearance in the glen. The princesses looked out from 
the tower in vain. In vain they stretched their swan-like 
necks from the balcony ; in vain they sang like captive night- 
ingales in their cage : nothing was to be seen of their Chris- 
tian lovers ; not a note responded from the groves. The 
discreet Kadiga sallied forth in quest of intelligence, and 
soon returned with a face full of trouble, " Ah, my children ! " 
cried she, " I saw what all this would come to, but you would 
have your way ; you may now hang up your lutes on the wil- 
lows. The Spanish cavaliers are ransomed by their families ; 
they are down in Granada, and preparing to return to their 
native country." 

The three beautiful princesses were in despair at the tid- 
ings. Zayda was indignant at the slight put upon them, in 
thus being deserted without a parting word. Zorayda wrung 
her hands and cried, and looked in the glass, and wiped away 
her tears, and cried afresh. The gentle Zorahayda leaned 
over the balcony and wept in silence, and her tears fell drop 
by drop among the flowers of the bank, where the faithless 
cavaliers had so often been seated. 

The discreet Kadiga did all in her power to soothe their 
sorrow. "Take comfort, my children," said she, "this is 
nothing when you are used to it. This is the way of the 
world. Ah ! when you are as old as I am, you will know 

[353] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

how to value these men. I 'II warrant these cavahers have 
their loves among the Spanish beauties of Cordova and Se- 
ville, and will soon be serenading under their balconies, and 
thinking no more of the Moorish beauties in the Alhambra. 
Take comfort, therefore, my children, and drive them from 
your hearts." 

The comforting words of the discreet Kadiga only redoubled 
the distress of the three princesses, and for two days they 
continued inconsolable. On the morning of the third the 
good old woman entered their apartment, all ruffling with 
indignation. 

"Who would have believed such insolence in mortal man! " 
exclaimed she, as soon as she could find words to express 
herself ; " but I am rightly served for having connived at 
this deception of your worthy father. Never talk more to 
me of your Spanish cavaliers," 

" Why, what has happened, good Kadiga.?" exclaimed the 
princesses in breathless anxiety. 

" What has happened ? — treason has happened ! or, what 
is almost as bad, treason has been proposed ; and to me, the 
most faithful of subjects, the trustiest of duennas ! Yes, my 
children, the Spanish cavaliers have dared to tamper with 
me, that I should persuade you to fly with them to Cordova, 
and become their wives ! " 

Here the excellent old woman covered her face with her 
hands, and gave way to a violent burst of grief and indigna- 
tion. The three beautiful princesses turned pale and red, 
pale and red, and trembled, and looked down, and cast shy 
looks at each other, but said nothing. Meantime the old 
woman sat rocking backward and forward in violent agita- 
tion, and now and then breaking out into exclamations : 

[^53] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

" That ever I should live to be so insulted ! — I, the most 
faithful of servants ! " 

At length the eldest princess, who had most spirit and 
always took the lead, approached her, and laying her hand 
upon her shoulder, "Well, mother," said she, "supposing 
we were willing to fly with these Christian cavaliers — is 
such a thing possible ? " 

The good old woman paused suddenly in her grief, look- 
ing up, " Possible," echoed she ; " to be sure it is possible. 
Have not the cavaliers already bribed Hussein Baba, the 
renegado captain of the guard, and arranged the whole plan ? 
But then, to think of deceiving your father! your father, 
who has placed such confidence in me! " Here the worthy 
woman gave way to a fresh burst of grief, and began again 
to rock backward and forward, and to wring her hands. 

"' But our father has never placed any confidence in us," 
said the eldest princess, " but has trusted to bolts and bars, 
and treated us as captives." 

"Why, that is true enough," replied the old woman, again 
pausing in her grief ; "he has indeed treated you most un- 
reasonably, keeping you shut up here, to waste your bloom 
in a moping old tower, like roses left to wither in a flower- 
jar. But, then, to fly from your native land ! " 

"And is not the land we fly to the native land of our mother, 
where we shall live in freedom } And shall we not each have 
a youthful husband in exchange for a severe old father.? " 

" Why, that again is all very true ; and your father, I 
must confess, is rather tyrannical ; but what then," relapsing 
into her grief, " would you leave me behind to bear the 
brunt of his vengeance .-• " 

" By no means, my good Kadiga ; cannot you fly with us .? " 

[254] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

" Very true, my child ; and to tell the truth, when I talked 
the matter over with Hussein Baba, he promised to take care 
of me, if I would accompany you in your flight ; but then, 
bethink you, my children, are you willing to renounce the 
faith of your father ? " 

" The Christian faith was the original faith of our mother," 
said the eldest princess ; "I am ready to embrace it, and so, 
I am sure, are my sisters," 

" Right again," exclaimed the old woman, brightening up; 
" it was the original faith of your mother, and bitterly did she 
lament on her death-bed that she had renounced it. I promised 
her then to take care of your souls, and I rejoice to see that 
they are now in a fair way to be saved. Yes, my children, I 
too was born a Christian, and have remained a Christian in 
my heart, and am resolved to return to the faith. I have 
talked on the subject with Hussein Baba, who is a Spaniard 
by birth, and comes from a place not far from my native 
town. He is equally anxious to see his own country, and to 
be reconciled to the Church ; and the cavaliers have promised 
that, if we are disposed to become man and wife, on return- 
ing to our native land, they will provide for us handsomely." 

In a word, it appeared that this extremely discreet and 
provident old woman had consulted with the cavaliers and 
the rcnegado, and had concerted the whole plan of escape. 
The eldest princess immediately assented to it, and her ex- 
ample, as usual, determined the conduct of her sisters. It is 
true, the youngest hesitated, for she was gentle and timid of 
soul, and there was a struggle in her bosom between filial 
feeling and youthful passion ; the latter, however, as usual, 
gained the victory, and with silent tears and stifled sighs 
she prepared herself for flight. 

[255] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The rugged hill on which the Alhambra is built was, in 
old times, perforated with subterranean passages cut through 
the rock and leading from the fortress to various parts of the 
city and to distant sally-ports on the banks of the Darro and 
the Xenil. They had been constructed at different times 
by the Moorish kings as means of escape from sudden insur- 
rections, or of secretly issuing forth on private enterprises. 
Many of them are now entirely lost, while others remain, 
partly choked with rubbish, and partly walled up, — monu- 
ments of the jealous precautions and warlike stratagems of 
the Moorish government. By one of these passages Hus- 
sein Baba had undertaken to conduct the princesses to a 
sally-port beyond the walls of the city, where the cavaliers 
were to be ready with fleet steeds, to bear the whole party 
over the borders. 

The appointed night arrived ; the tower of the princesses 
had been locked up as usual, and the Alhambra was buried 
in deep sleep. Towards midnight the discreet Kadiga listened 
from the balcony of a window that looked into the garden, 
Hussein Baba, the rcjicgado, was already below, and gave 
the appointed signal. The duenna fastened the end of a 
ladder of ropes to the balcony, lowered it into the garden 
and descended. The two eldest princesses followed her with 
beating hearts ; but when it came to the turn of the youngest 
princess, Zorahayda, she hesitated and trembled. Several 
times she ventured a delicate little foot upon the ladder, and 
as often drew it back, while her poor little heart fluttered 
more and more the longer she delayed. She cast a wistful 
look back into the silken chamber ; she had lived in it, to be 
sure, like a bird in a cage ; but within it she was secure ; 
who could tell what dangers might beset her should she 

[256] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

flutter forth into the wide world ! Now she bethought her 
of her gallant Christian lover, and her little foot was instantly 
upon the ladder ; and anon she thought of her father, and 
shrank back. But fruitless is the attempt to describe the 
conflict in the bosom of one so young and tender and loving, 
but so timid and so ignorant of the world. 

In vain her sisters implored, the due una scolded, and the 
rcnegado blasphemed beneath the balcony : the gentle little 
Moorish maid stood doubting and wavering on the verge of 
elopement ; tempted by the sweetness of the sin, but terrified 
at its perils. 

Every moment increased the danger of discovery. A 
distant tramp was heard. " The patrols are walking their 
rounds," cried the renegado \ "if we linger, we perish. 
Princess, descend instantly, or we leave you." 

Zorahayda was for a moment in fearful agitation ; then 
loosening the ladder of ropes, with desperate resolution she 
flung it from the balcony. 

"It is decided!" cried she; "flight is now out of my 
power ! Allah guide and bless ye, my dear sisters ! " 

The two eldest princesses were shocked at the thoughts 
of leaving her behind, and would fain have lingered, but the 
patrol was advancing ; the renegado was furious, and they 
were hurried away to the subterraneous passage. They groped 
their way through a fearful labyrinth, cut through the heart 
of the mountain, and succeeded in reaching, undiscovered, 
an iron gate that opened outside of the walls. The Spanish 
cavaliers were waiting to receive them, disguised as Moorish 
soldiers of the guard, commanded by the renegado. 

The lover of Zorahayda was frantic when he learned that 
she had refused to leave the tower ; but there was no time 

[257] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

to waste in lamentations. The two princesses were placed 
behind their lovers, the discreet Kadiga mounted behind the 
renegado, and they all set off at a round pace in the direction 
of the Pass of Lope, which leads through the mountains 
towards Cordova. 

They had not proceeded far when they heard the noise of 
drums and trumpets from the battlements of the Alhambra, 

" Our flight is discovered ! " said the renegado. 

" We have fleet steeds, the night is dark, and we may 
distance all pursuit," replied the cavaliers. 

They put spurs to their horses, and scoured across the 
Vega. They attained the foot of the mountain of Elvira, 
which stretches like a promontory into the plain. The rene- 
gado paused and listened. " As yet," said he, "there is no 
one on our traces, we shall make good our escape to the 
mountains." While he spoke, a light blaze sprang up on 
the top of the watch-tower of the Alhambra. 

" Confusion ! " cried the renegado, " that bale fire will put 
all the guards of the passes on the alert. Away ! away ! 
Spur like mad, — there is no time to be lost." 

Away they dashed — the clattering of their horses' hoofs 
echoed from rock to rock, as they swept along the road that 
skirts the rocky mountain of Elvira. As they galloped on, 
the bale fire of the Alhambra was answered in every direction ; 
light after light blazed on the atalayas, or watch-towers of 
the mountains. 

"' Forward ! forward ! " cried the renegado, with many an 
oath, "to the bridge, — to the bridge, before the alarm has 
reached there ! " 

They doubled the promontory of the mountains, and arrived 
in sight of the famous Bridge of Finos, that crosses a rushing 

[258] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

stream often dyed with Christian and Moslem blood. To 
their confusion, the tower on the bridge blazed with lights 
and glittered with armed men. The rcncgado pulled up his 
steed, rose in his stirrups, and looked about him for a 
moment ; then beckoning to the cavaliers, he struck off from 
the road, skirted the river for some distance, and dashed into 
its waters. The cavaliers called upon the princesses to cling 
to them, and did the same. They were borne for some dis- 
tance down the rapid current, the surges roared round them, 
but the beautiful princesses clung to their Christian knights, 
and never uttered a complaint. The cavaliers attained the 
opposite bank in safety, and were conducted by the rcncgado, 
by rude and unfrequented paths and wild barrancos, through 
the heart of the mountains, so as to avoid all the regular 
passes. In a word, they succeeded in reaching the ancient 
city of Cordova ; where their restoration to their country and 
friends was celebrated with great rejoicings, for they were of 
the noblest families. The beautiful princesses were forthwith 
received into the bosom of the Church, and, after being in 
all due form made regular Christians, were rendered happy 
wives. 

In our hurry to make good the escape of the princesses 
across the river, and up the mountains, we forgot to mention 
the fate of the discreet Kadiga. She had clung like a cat to 
Hussein Baba in the scamper across the Vega, screaming at 
every bound, and drawing many an oath from the whiskered 
rcncgado ; but when he prepared to plunge his steed into 
the river, her terror knew no bounds. " Grasp me not so 
tightly," cried Hussein Baba ; " hold on by my belt and fear 
nothing." She held firmly with both hands by the leathern 
belt that girded the broad-backed rcncgado ; but when he 

[259] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

halted with the cavaHers to take breath on the mountain 
summit, the duenna was no longer to be seen. 

"What has become of Kadiga ? " cried the princesses 
in alarm. 

"Allah alone knows!" replied the renegado \ "my belt 
came loose when in the midst of the river, and Kadiga 
was swept with it down the stream. The will of Allah be 
done! but it was an embroidered belt, and of great price." 

There was no time to waste in idle regrets ; yet bitterly 
did the princesses bewail the loss of their discreet counsellor. 
That excellent old woman, however, did not lose more than 
half of her nine lives in the water ; a fisherman, who was 
drawing his nets some distance down the stream, brought 
her to land, and was not a little astonished at his miraculous 
draught. What further became of the discreet Kadiga, the 
legend does not mention ; certain it is that she evinced her 
discretion in never venturing within the reach of Mohamed 
the Left-handed. 

Almost as little is known of the conduct of that sagacious 
monarch when he discovered the escape of his daughters, 
and the deceit practised upon him by the most faithful of 
servants. It was the only instance in which he had called in 
the aid of counsel, and he was never afterwards known to be 
guilty of a similar weakness. He took good care, however, 
to guard his remaining daughter, who had no disposition to 
elope ; it is thought, indeed, that she secretly repented hav- 
ing remained behind : now and then she was seen leaning 
on the battlements of the tower, and looking mournfully 
towards the mountains in the direction of Cordova, and 
sometimes the notes of her lute were heard accompanying 
plaintive ditties, in which she was said to lament the loss of 

[260] 



THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

her sisters and her lover, and to bewail her solitary life. She 
died young, and, according to popular rumor, was buried in 
a vault beneath the tower, and her untimely fate has given 
rise to more than one traditionary fable. 

The following legend, which seems in some measure to 
spring out of the foregoing story, is too closely connected- 
with high historic names to be entirely doubted. The Count's 
daughter, and some of her young companions, to whom it 
was read in one of the evening tertullias, thought certain 
parts of it had much appearance of reality ; and Dolores, 
who was much more versed than they in the improbable 
truths of the Alhambra, believed every word of it. 



[261] 




y^- •,. .-. -v, iT, .V i ^ i( .•_.% I ; ^•. 



LEGEND OF THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA 



FOR some time after the surrender of Granada by the 
Moors, that deHghtful city was a frequent and favorite 
residence of the Spanish sovereigns, until they were 
frightened away by successive shocks of earthquakes, which 
toppled down various houses, and made the old Moslem 
towers rock to their foundation. 

Many, many years then rolled away, during which Granada 
was rarely honored by a royal guest. The palaces of the 
nobility remained silent and shut up ; and the Alhambra, 
like a slighted beauty, sat in mournful desolation among her 
neglected gardens. The Tower of the Infantas, once the 
residence of the three beautiful Moorish princesses, partook 
of the general desolation ; the spider spun her web athwart 
the gilded vault, and bats and owls nestled in those chambers 
that had been graced by the presence of Zayda, Zorayda, and 
Zorahayda. The neglect of this tower may have been partly 

[262 ] 



THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

owing to some superstitious notions of the neighbors. It was 
rumored that the spirit of the youthful Zorahayda, who had 
perished in that tower, was often seen by moonhght seated 
beside the fountain in the hall, or moaning about the battle- 
ments, and that the notes of her silver lute would be heard 
at midnight by wayfarers passing along the glen. 

At length the city of Granada was once more welcomed 
by the royal presence. All the world knows that Philip V 
was the first Bourbon that swayed the Spanish sceptre. All 
the world knows that he married, in second nuptials, Eliza- 
betta or Isabella (for they are the same), the beautiful prin- 
cess of Parma ; and all the world knows that by this chain 
of contingencies a PYench prince and an Italian princess 
were seated together on the Spanish throne. P'or a visit of 
this illustrious pair, the Alhambra was repaired and fitted up 
with all possible expedition. The arrival of the court changed 
the whole aspect of the lately deserted palace. The clangor 
of drum and trumpet, the tramp of steed about the avenues 
and outer court, the glitter of arms and display of banners 
about barbican and battlement, recalled the ancient and war- 
like glories of the fortress. A softer spirit, however, reigned 
within the royal palace. There was the rustling of robes 
and the cautious tread and murmuring voice of reverential 
courtiers about the ante-chambers, a loitering of pages and 
maids of honor about the gardens, and the sound of music 
stealing from open casements. 

Among those who attended in the train of the monarchs 
was a favorite page of the queen, named Ruiz de Alarcon. 
To say that he was a favorite page of the queen was at once 
to speak his eulogium, for every one in the suite of the 
stately Elizabetta was chosen for grace, and beauty, and 

[263] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

accomplishments. He was just turned of eighteen, light and 
lithe of form, and graceful as a young Antinous. To the queen 
he was all deference and respect, yet he was at heart a roguish 
stripling, petted and spoiled by the ladies about the court. 

This loitering page was one morning rambling about the 
groves of the Generalife, which overlook the grounds of the 
Alhambra. He had taken with him for his amusement a 
favorite gerfalcon of the queen. In the course of his ram- 
bles, seeing a bird rising from a thicket, he unhooded the 
hawk and let him fly. The falcon towered high in the air, 
made a swoop at his quarry, but missing it, soared away, re- 
gardless of the calls of the page. The latter followed the 
truant bird with his eye, in its capricious flight, until he saw 
it alight upon the battlements of a remote and lonely tower, 
in the outer wall of the Alhambra, built on the edge of a 
ravine that separated the royal fortress from the grounds of 
the Generalife. It was in fact the "Tower of the Princesses." 

The page descended into the ravine and approached the 
tower, but it had no entrance from the glen, and its lofty 
height rendered any attempt to scale it fruitless. Seeking 
one of the gates of the fortress, therefore, he made a wide 
circuit to that side of the tower facing within the walls. 

A small garden, enclosed by a trellis-work of reeds over- 
hung with myrtle, lay before the tower. Opening a wicket, 
the page passed between beds of flowers and thickets of 
roses to the door. It was closed and bolted. A crevice in 
the door gave him a peep into the interior. There was a 
small Moorish hall with fretted walls, light marble columns, 
and an alabaster fountain surrounded with flowers. In the 
centre hung a gilt cage containing a singing-bird ; beneath 
it, on a chair, lay a tortoise-shell cat among reels of silk and 

[264] 











THE LITTLE M O SQ U E — A L H A M B RA 



THE ALHAMBRA 

other articles of female labor, and a guitar decorated with 
ribbons leaned against the fountain. 

Ruiz de Alarcon was struck with these traces of female 
taste and elegance in a lonely and, as he had supposed, 
deserted tower. They reminded him of the tales of enchanted 
halls current in the Alhambra; and the tortoise-shell cat 
might be some spell-bound princess. 

He knocked gently at the door. A beautiful face peeped 
out from a little window above, but was instantly withdrawn. 
He waited, expecting that the door would be opened, but he 
waited in vain ; no footstep was to be heard within — all was 
silent. Had his senses deceived him, or was this beautiful 
apparition the fairy of the tower ? He knocked again, and 
more loudly. After a little while the beaming face once 
more peeped forth ; it was that of a blooming damsel of 
fifteen. 

The page immediately doffed his plumed bonnet, and 
entreated in the most courteous accents to be permitted to 
ascend the tower in pursuit of his falcon. 

'" I dare not open the door, Senor," replied the little 
damsel, blushing, " my aunt has forbidden it." 

" I do beseech you, fair maid — it is the favorite falcon 
of the queen. I dare not return to the palace without it." 

" Are you then one of the cavaliers of the court } " 

'" I am, fair maid ; but I shall lose the queen's favor and 
my place, if I lose this hawk." 

"It is against you cavaliers of the court my aunt has 
charged me especially to bar the door." 

"' Against wicked cavaliers doubtless, but I am none of 
these, but a simple, harmless page, who will be ruined and 
undone if you deny me this small request." 

[266] 



THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

The heart of the little damsel was touched by the distress 
of the page. It was a thousand pities he should be ruined 
for the want of so trifling a boon. Surely too he could not 
be one of those dangerous beings whom her aunt had 
described as a species of cannibal, ever on the prowl to make 
prey of thoughtless damsels ; he was gentle and modest, 
and stood so entreatingly with cap in hand, and looked 
so charming. 

The sly page saw that the garrison began to waver, and 
redoubled his entreaties in such moving terms that it was 
not in the nature of mortal maiden to deny him ; so the 
blushing little warden of the tower descended, and opened 
the door with a trembling hand, and if the page had been 
charmed by a mere glimpse of her countenance from the 
window, he was ravished by the full-length portrait now 
revealed to him. 

Her Andalusian bodice and trim hasqtnna set off the 
round but delicate symmetry of her form, which was as yet 
scarce verging into womanhood. Her glossy hair was parted 
on her forehead with scrupulous exactness, and decorated with 
a fresh-plucked rose, according to the universal custom of 
the country. It is true her complexion was tinged by the 
ardor of a southern sun, but it served to give richness to the 
mantling bloom of her cheek, and to heighten the lustre of 
her melting eyes. 

Ruiz de Alarcon beheld all this with a single glance, for it 
became him not to tarry ; he merely murmured his acknowl- 
edgments, and then bounded lightly up the spiral staircase 
in quest of his falcon. 

He soon returned with the truant bird upon his fist. The 
damsel, in the meantime, had seated herself by the fountain 

[267] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

in the hall, and was winding silk ; but in her agitation she 
let fall the reel upon the pavement. The page sprang and 
picked it up, then dropping gracefully on one knee, pre- 
sented it to her ; but, seizing the hand extended to receive 
it, imprinted on it a kiss more fervent and devout than he 
had ever imprinted on the fair hand of his sovereign. 

"' Setior ! " exclaimed the damsel, blushing still deeper with 
confusion and surprise, for never before had she received 
such a salutation. 

The modest page made a thousand apologies, assuring her 
it was the way at court of expressing the most profound 
homage and respect. 

Her anger, if anger she felt, was easily pacified, but her 
agitation and embarrassment continued, and she sat blushing 
deeper and deeper, with her eyes cast down upon her work, 
entangling the silk which she attempted to wind. 

The cunning page saw the confusion in the opposite camp, 
and would fain have profited by it, but the fine speeches he 
would have uttered died upon his lips ; his attempts at gal- 
lantry were awkward and ineffectual ; and to his surprise, the 
adroit page, who had figured with such grace and effrontery 
among the most knowing and experienced ladies of the 
court, found himself awed and abashed in the presence of a 
simple damsel of fifteen. 

The diffidence of the page, though genuine, was short- 
lived, and he was recovering his usual ease and confidence, 
when a shrill voice was heard at a distance. 

" My aunt is returning from mass ! " cried the damsel in 
affright ; " I pray you, Senor, depart." 

" Not until you grant me that rose from your hair as a 
remembrance." 

[268] 



THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

She hastily untwisted the rose from her raven locks, 
"Take it," cried she, agitated and blushing, "but pray 
begone," 

The page took the rose, and at the same time covered 
with kisses the fair hand that gave it. Then, placing the 
flower in his bonnet, and taking the falcon upon his fist, he 
bounded off through the garden, bearing away with him the 
heart of the gentle Jacinta. 

When the vigilant aunt arrived at the tower, she remarked 
the agitation of her niece, and an air of confusion in the 
hall ; but a word of explanation sufficed. " A gerfalcon had 
pursued his prey into the hall," 

" Mercy on us ! to think of a falcon flying into the tower. 
Did ever one hear of so saucy a hawk ? Why, the very bird 
in the cage is not safe ! " 

The vigilant Fredegonda was one of the most wary of 
ancient spinsters. She had a becoming terror and distrust of 
what she denominated "the opposite sex," which had gradually 
increased through a long life of celibacy. 

The niece was the orphan of an officer who had fallen in 
the wars. She had been educated in a convent, and had 
recently been transferred from her sacred asylum to the 
immediate guardianship of her aunt, under whose over- 
shadowing care she vegetated in obscurity, like an open- 
ing rose blooming beneath a brier. Nor indeed is this 
comparison entirely accidental ; for, to tell the truth, her 
fresh and dawning beauty had caught the public eye, even 
in her seclusion, and, with that poetical turn common to 
the people of Andalusia, the peasantry of the neighbor- 
hood had given her the appellation of " the Rose of the 
Alhambra." 

[269] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The wary aunt continued to keep a faithful watch over her 
tempting Httle niece as long as the court continued at Granada, 
and flattered herself that her vigilance had been successful. 
It is true the good lady was now and then discomposed by the 
tinkling of guitars and chanting of love-ditties from the moon- 
lit groves beneath the tower ; but she would exhort her niece 
to shut her ears against such idle minstrelsy, assuring her that 
it was one of the arts of the opposite sex, by which simple 
maids were often lured to their undoing. Alas ! what chance 
with a simple maid has a dry lecture against a moonlight 
serenade .'' 

At length King Philip cut short his sojourn at Granada, 
and suddenly departed with all his train. The vigilant Frede- 
gonda watched the royal pageant as it issued forth from the 
Gate of Justice and descended the great avenue leading to 
the city. When the last banner disappeared from her sight, 
she returned exulting to her tower, for all her cares were 
over. To her surprise, a light Arabian steed pawed the 
ground at the wicket-gate of the garden ; — to her horror she 
saw through the thickets of roses a youth in gayly embroid- 
ered dress, at the feet of her niece. At the sounds of her 
footsteps he gave a tender adieu, bounded lightly over the 
barrier of reeds and myrtles, sprang upon his horse, and 
was out of sight in an instant. 

The tender Jacinta, in the agony of her grief, lost all 
thought of her aunt's displeasure. Throwing herself into 
her arms, she broke forth into sobs and tears. 

" Aj/ de mi!" cried she; "he's gone! he's gone! and 
I shall never see him more ! " 

"Gone! — who is gone.'' — what youth is that I saw at 
your feet ? " 

[270J 



THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

"A queen's page, aunt, who came to bid me farewell." 

'" A queen's page, child ! " echoed the vigilant Fredegonda, 
faintly, " and when did you become acquainted with the queen's 
page?" 

" The morning that the gerfalcon came into the tower. It 
was the queen's gerfalcon, and he came in pursuit of it." 

" Ah silly, silly girl ! know that there are no gerfalcons 
half so dangerous as these young prankling pages, and it is 
precisely such simple birds as thee that they pounce upon." 

Days, weeks, months, elapsed, and nothing more was heard 
of the page. The pomegranate ripened, the vine yielded up 
its fruit, the autumnal rains descended in torrents from the 
mountains ; the Sierra Nevada became covered with a snowy 
mantle, and wintry blasts howled through the halls of the 
Alhambra — still he came not. The winter passed away. ^ 
Again the genial spring burst forth with song and blossom 
and balmy zephyr ; the snows melted from the mountains, 
until none remained but on the lofty summit of Nevada, 
glistening through the sultry summer air. Still nothing was 
heard of the forgetful page. 

In the meantime the poor little Jacinta grew pale and 
thoughtful. Her former occupations and amusements were 
abandoned, her silk lay entangled, her guitar unstrung, her 
flowers were neglected, the notes of her bird unheeded, and 
her eyes, once so bright, were dimmed with secret weeping. 
If any solitude could be devised to foster the passion of a 
love-lorn damsel it would be such a place as the Alhambra, 
where everything seems disposed to produce tender and ro- 
mantic reveries. It is a very paradise for lovers ; how hard 
then to be alone in such a paradise — ■ and not merely alone, 
but forsaken ! 

[ 271] 



THE ALHAM BRA 

" Alas, silly child ! " would the staid and immaculate 
Fredegonda say, when she found her niece in one of her 
desponding moods — " did I not warn thee against the wiles 
and deceptions of these men ? What couldst thou expect, 
too, from one of a haughty and aspiring family — thou an 
orphan, the descendant of a fallen and impoverished line ? 
Be assured, if the youth were true, his father, who is one of 
the proudest nobles about the court, would prohibit his union 
with one so humble and portionless as thou. Pluck up thy 
resolution therefore, and drive these idle notions from thy 
mind." 

The words of the immaculate P^edegonda only served 
to increase the melancholy of her niece, but she sought 
to indulge it in private. At a late hour one midsummer 
night, after her aunt had retired to rest, she remained alone 
in the hall of the tower, seated beside the alabaster foun- 
tain. It was here that the faithless page had first knelt 
and kissed her hand ; it was here that he had often vowed 
eternal fidelity. The poor little damsel's heart was over- 
laden with sad and tender recollections, her tears began to 
flow, and slowly fell drop by drop into the fountain. By 
degrees the crystal water became agitated, and - — ■ bubble — 
bubble — bubble — boiled up and was tossed about, until 
a female figure, richly clad in Moorish robes, slowly rose 
to view. 

Jacinta was so frightened that she fled from the hall and 
did not venture to return. The next morning she related 
what she had seen to her aunt, but the good lady treated it 
as a fantasy of her troubled mind, or supposed she had fallen 
asleep and dreamt beside the fountain. " Thou hast been 
thinking of the story of the three Moorish princesses that 

[272] 



THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

once inhabited this tower," continued she, "and it has 
entered into thy dreams." 

'" What story, aunt ? I know nothing of it." 

" Thou hast certainly heard of the three princesses, Zayda, 
Zorayda, and Zorahayda, who were confined in this tower by 
the king their father, and agreed to fly with three Christian 
cavahers. The two first accomplished their escape, but the 
third failed in her resolution, and, it is said, died in this 
tower." 

" I now recollect to have heard of it," said Jacinta, "and 
to have wept over the fate of the gentle Zorahayda." 

"Thou mayest well weep over her fate," continued the aunt, 
" for the lover of Zorahayda was thy ancestor. He long be- 
moaned his Moorish love ; but time cured him of his grief, and 
he married a Spanish lady, from whom thou art descended." 

Jacinta ruminated over these words. " That which I have 
seen is no fantasy of the brain," said she to herself, " I am 
confident. If indeed it be the spirit of the gentle Zorahayda, 
which I have heard lingers about this tower, of what should 
I be afraid .? I '11 watch by the fountain to-night — perhaps 
the visit will be repeated." 

Towards midnight, when everything was quiet, she again 
took her seat in the hall. As the bell in the distant watch- 
tower of the Alhambra struck the midnight hour, the foun- 
tain was again agitated ; and bubble ■ — bubble — bubble — it 
tossed about the waters until the Moorish female again rose 
to view. She was young and beautiful ; her dress was rich 
with jewels, and in her hand she held a silver lute. Jacinta 
trembled and was faint, but was reassured by the soft and 
plaintive voice of the apparition, and the sweet expression 
of her pale, melancholy countenance. 

[273] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

"Daughter of mortality," said she, "what aileth thee? 
Why do thy tears trouble my fountain, and thy sighs and 
plaints disturb the quiet watches of the night ? " 

" I weep because of the faithlessness of man, and I bemoan 
my solitary and forsaken state." 

" Take comfort ; thy sorrows may yet have an end. Thou 
beholdest a Moorish princess, who, like thee, was unhappy 
in her love. A Christian knight, thy ancestor, won my heart, 
and would have borne me to his native land and to the bosom 
of his church. I was a convert in my heart, but I lacked 
courage equal to my faith, and lingered till too late. For this 
the evil genii are permitted to have power over me, and I 
remain enchanted in this tower until some pure Christian 
will deign to break the magic spell. Wilt thou undertake 
the task ? " 

" I will," replied the damsel, trembling. 

" Come hither, then, and fear not ; dip thy hand in the 
fountain, sprinkle the water over me, and baptize me after 
the manner of thy faith ; so shall the enchantment be dis- 
pelled, and my troubled spirit have repose." 

The damsel advanced with faltering steps, dipped her hand 
in the fountain, collected water in the palm, and sprinkled it 
over the pale face of the phantom. 

The latter smiled with ineffable benignity. She dropped 
her silver lute at the feet of Jacinta, crossed her white arms 
upon her bosom, and melted from sight, so that it seemed 
merely as if a shower of dewdrops had fallen into the fountain. 

Jacinta retired from the hall filled with awe and wonder. 
She scarcely closed her eyes that night ; but when she awoke 
at daybreak out of a troubled slumber, the whole appeared to 
her like a distempered dream. On descending into the hall, 

[274] 



THE ROSE OF THE A L H A M B R A 

however, the truth of the vision was established, for beside 
the fountain she beheld the silver lute glittering in the 
morning sunshine. 

She hastened to her aunt, to relate all that had befallen 
her, and called her to behold the lute as a testimonial of 
the reality of her story. If the good lady had any lingering 
doubts, they were removed when Jacinta touched the instru- 
ment, for she drew forth such ravishing tones as to thaw 
even the frigid bosom of the immaculate Fredegonda, that 
region of eternal winter, into a genial flow. Nothing but 
supernatural melody could have produced such an effect. 

The extraordinary power of the lute became every day 
more and more apparent. The wayfarer passing by the tower 
was detained, and, as it were, spell-bound in breathless ecstasy. 
The very birds gathered in the neighboring trees, and hushing 
their own strains, listened in charmed silence. 

Rumor soon spread the news abroad. The inhabitants of 
Granada thronged to the Alhambra to catch a few notes 
of the transcendent music that floated about the Tower of 
Las Infantas. 

The lovely little minstrel was at length drawn forth from 
her retreat. The rich and powerful of the land contended 
who should entertain and do honor to her ; or rather, who 
should secure the charms of her lute to draw fashionable 
throngs to their saloons. Wherever she went her vigilant 
aunt kept a dragon watch at her elbow, awing the throngs 
of impassioned admirers who hung in raptures on her strains. 
The report of her wonderful powers spread from city to city. 
Malaga, Seville, Cordova, all became successively mad on 
the theme ; nothing was talked of throughout Andalusia but 
the beautiful minstrel of the Alhambra. How could it be 

[275] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

otherwise among a people so musical and gallant as the 
Andalusians, when the lute was magical in its powers, and 
the minstrel inspired by love ! 

While all Andalusia was thus music mad, a different mood 
prevailed at the court of Spain. Philip V, as is well known, 
was a miserable hypochondriac, and subject to all kinds of 
fancies. Sometimes he would keep to his bed for weeks 
together, groaning under imaginary complaints. At other 
times he would insist upon abdicating his throne, to the great 
annoyance of his royal spouse, who had a strong relish for 
the splendors of a court and the glories of a crown, and 
guided the sceptre of her imbecile lord with an expert and 
steady hand. 

Nothing was found to be so efficacious in dispelling the 
royal megrims as the power of music ; the queen took care, 
therefore, to have the best performers, both vocal and in- 
strumental, at hand, and retained the famous Italian singer 
Farinelli about the court as a kind of royal physician. 

At the moment we treat of, however, a freak had come 
over the mind of this sapient and illustrious Bourbon that 
surpassed all former vagaries. After a long spell of imaginary 
illness, which set all the strains of Farinelli and the consulta- 
tions of a whole orchestra of court fiddlers at defiance, the 
monarch fairly, in idea, gave up the ghost, and considered 
himself absolutely dead. 

This would have been harmless enough, and even con- 
venient both to his queen and courtiers, had he been content 
to remain in the quietude befitting a dead man ; but to their 
annoyance he insisted upon having the funeral ceremonies 
performed over him, and, to their inexpressible perplexity, 
began to grow impatient, and to revile bitterly at them for 

[276] 



THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

negligence and disrespect, in leaving him unburied. What 
was to be done ? To disobey the king's positive commands 
was monstrous in the eyes of the obsequious courtiers of a 
punctilious court — but to obey him, and bury him alive, 
would be downright regicide ! 

In the midst of this fearful dilemma a rumor reached the 
court of the female minstrel who was turning the brains of 
all Andalusia. The queen despatched missions in all haste 
to summon her to St. Ildefonso, where the court at that time 
resided. 

Within a few days, as the queen with her maids of honor 
was walking in those stately gardens, intended, with their 
avenues and terraces and fountains, to eclipse the glories of 
Versailles, the far-famed minstrel was conducted into her 
presence. The imperial Elizabetta gazed with surprise at the 
youthful and unpretending appearance of the little being that 
had set the world madding. She was in her picturesque 
Andalusian dress, her silver lute in hand, and stood with 
modest and downcast eyes, but with a simplicity and fresh- 
ness of beauty that still bespoke her ' " the Rose of the 
Alhambra." 

As usual she was accompanied by the ever-vigilant Frede- 
gonda, who gave the whole history of her parentage and 
descent to the inquiring queen. If the stately Elizabetta had 
been interested by the appearance of Jacinta, she was still 
more pleased when she learnt that she was of a meritorius 
though impoverished line, and that her father had bravely 
fallen in the service of the crown. " If thy powers equal thy 
renown," said she, " and thou canst cast forth this evil spirit 
that possesses thy sovereign, thy fortunes shall henceforth 
be my care, and honors and wealth attend thee." 

[277] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Impatient to make trial of her skill, she led the way at 
once to the apartment of the moody monarch. 

Jacinta followed with downcast eyes through files of guards 
and crowds of courtiers. They arrived at length at a great 
chamber hung with black. The windows were closed to 
exclude the light of day ; a number of yellow wax tapers in 
silver sconces diffused a lugubrious light, and dimly revealed 
the figures of mutes in mourning dresses, and courtiers who 
glided about with noiseless step and woe-begone visage. In 
the midst of a funeral bed or bier, his hands folded on his 
breast, and the tip of his nose just visible, lay extended this 
would-be-buried monarch. 

The queen entered the chamber in silence, and pointing 
to a footstool in an obscure corner, beckoned to Jacinta to 
sit down and commence. 

At first she touched her lute with a faltering hand, but 
gathering confidence and animation as she proceeded, drew 
forth such soft aerial harmony, that ail present could scarce 
believe it mortal. As to the monarch, who had already con- 
sidered himself in the world of spirits, he set it down for 
some angelic melody or the music of the spheres. By degrees 
the theme was varied, and the voice of the minstrel accom- 
panied the instrument. She poured forth one of the legendary 
ballads treating of the ancient glories of the Alhambra and 
the achievements of the Moors. Her whole soul entered into 
the theme, for with the recollections of the Alhambra was 
associated the story of her love. The funeral-chamber re- 
sounded with the animating strain. It entered into the gloomy 
heart of the monarch. He raised his head and gazed around : 
he sat up on his couch, his eye began to kindle — at length, 
leaping upon the floor, he called for sword and buckler. 

[278] 



THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

The triumph of music, or rather of the enchanted lute, 
was complete ; the demon of melancholy was cast forth ; 
and, as it were, a dead man brought to life. The windows 
of the apartment were thrown open ; the glorious effulgence 
of Spanish sunshine burst into the late lugubrious chamber ; 
all eyes sought the lovely enchantress, but the lute had fallen 
from her hand, she had sunk upon the earth, and the next 
moment was clasped to the bosom of Ruiz de Alarcon. 

The nuptials of the happy couple were celebrated soon 
afterwards with great splendor, and the Rose of the Alham- 
bra became the ornament and delight of the court. " But 
hold — not so fast" — I hear the reader exclaim; "this is 
jumping to the end of a story at a furious rate ! First let us 
know how Ruiz de Alarcon managed to account to Jacinta 
for his long neglect? " Nothing more easy ; the venerable, 
time-honored excuse, the opposition to his wishes by a proud, 
pragmatical old father ; besides, young people who really like 
one another soon come to an amicable understanding, and 
bury all past grievances when once they meet. 

But how was the proud, pragmatical old father reconciled 
to the match .? 

Oh ! as to that, his scruples were easily overcome by 
a word or two from the queen, especially as dignities and 
rewards were showered upon the blooming favorite of royalty. 
Besides, the lute of Jacinta, you know, possessed a magic 
power, and could control the most stubborn head and hardest 
breast. 

And what came of the enchanted lute .? 

Oh, that is the most curious matter of all, and plainly 
proves the truth of the whole story. That lute remained for 
some time in the family, but was purloined and carried off, 

[-79] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

as was supposed, by the great singer Farinelli, in pure jeal- 
ousy. At his death it passed into other hands in Italy, who 
were ignorant of its mystic powers, and melting down the 
silver, transferred the strings to an old Cremona fiddle. The 
strings still retain something of their magic virtues. A word 
in the reader's ear, but let it go no further: that fiddle is now 
bewitching the whole world, — it is the fiddle of Paganini ! 



[280] 



n 













>.^.< -- 






THE VETERAN 

A MONG the curious acquaintances I made in my ram- 
f=^\ bles about the fortress, was a brave and battered old 
^ j]L colonel of Invalids, who was nestled like a hawk in 
one of the Moorish towers. His history, which he was fond 
of telling, was a tissue of those adventures, mishaps, and 
vicissitudes that render the life of almost every Spaniard 
of note as varied and whimsical as the pages of Gil Bias. 

He was in America at twelve years of age, and reckoned 
among the most signal and fortunate events of his life, his 
having seen General Washington. Since then he had taken 
a part in all the wars of his country ; he could speak experi- 
mentally of most of the prisons and dungeons of the Penin- 
sula ; had been lamed of one leg, crippled in his hands, and 
so cut up and carbonadoed that he was a kind of walking 
monument of the troubles of Spain, on which there was a 
scar for every battle and broil, as every year of captivity was 
notched upon the tree of Robinson Crusoe. The greatest 

[281] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

misfortune of the brave old cavalier, however, appeared to 
have been his having commanded at Malaga during a time 
of peril and confusion, and been made a general by the in- 
habitants, to protect them from the invasion of the French. 
This had entailed upon him a number of just claims upon 
government, that I feared would employ him until his dying 
day in writing and printing petitions and memorials, to the 
great disquiet of his mind, exhaustion of his purse, and pen- 
ance of his friends ; not one of whom could visit him with- 
out having to listen to a mortal document of half an hour in 
length, and to carry away half a dozen pamphlets in his 
pocket. This, however, is the case throughout Spain ; every- 
where you meet with some worthy wight brooding in a corner, 
and nursing up some pet grievance and cherished wrong. 
Besides, a Spaniard who has a lawsuit, or a claim upon gov- 
ernment, may be considered as furnished with employment 
for the remainder of his life. 

I visited the veteran in his quarters in the upper part of 
the Torre del Vino, or Wine Tower. His room was small 
but snug, and commanded a beautiful view of the Vega. It 
was arranged with a soldier's precision. Three muskets and 
a brace of pistols, all bright and shining, were suspended 
against the wall, with a sabre and a cane hanging side by 
side, and above them two cocked hats, one for parade, and 
one for ordinary use. A small shelf, containing some half 
dozen books, formed his library, one of which, a little old 
mouldy volume of philosophical maxims, was his favorite 
reading. This he thumbed and pondered over day by day ; 
applying every maxim to his own particular case, provided 
it had a little tinge of wholesome bitterness, and treated of 
the injustice of the world. 

[ ^^82 ] 



THE VETERAN 

Yet he was social and kind-hearted, and provided he could 
be diverted from his wrongs and his philosophy, was an enter- 
taining companion. I like these old weather-beaten sons of 
fortune, and enjoy their rough campaigning anecdotes. In 
the course of my visits to the one in question, I learnt some 
curious facts about an old military commander of the fortress, 
who seems to have resembled him in some respects, and to 
have had similar fortunes in the wars. These particulars have 
been augmented by inquiries among some of the old inhab- 
itants of the place, particularly the father of Mateo Ximenes, 
of whose traditional stories the worthy I am about to introduce 
to the reader was a favorite hero. 



[283] 







THE GOVERNOR AND THE NOTARY 



N FORMER times there ruled, as governor of the 
Alhambra, a doughty old cavalier, who, from having 
lost one arm in the wars, was commonly known by 
the name of El Gobernador Manco, or "the one-armed 
governor." He in fact prided himself upon being an old 
soldier, wore his moustaches curled up to his eyes, a pair of 
campaigning boots, and a toledo as long as a spit, with his 
pocket-handkerchief in the basket-hilt. 

He was, moreover, exceedingly proud and punctilious, and 
tenacious of all his privileges and dignities. ' Under his sway 
the immunities of the Alhambra, as a royal residence and 
domain, were rigidly exacted. No one was permitted to enter 
the fortress with fire-arms, or even with a sword or staff, 
unless he were of a certain rank ; and every horseman was 
obliged to dismount at the gate, and lead his horse by the 

[284] 



THE GOVERNOR AND THE NOTARY 

bridle. Now as the hill of the Alhambra rises from the very 
midst of the city of Granada, being, as it were, an excrescence 
of the capital, it must at all times be somewhat irksome to 
the captain-general, who commands the province, to have thus 
an hnpcrinni in inipcrio, a petty independent post in the very 
centre of his domains. It was rendered the more galling, in 
the present instance, from the irritable jealousy of the old 
governor, that took fire on the least question of authority 
and jurisdiction ; and from the loose vagrant character of 
the people who had gradually nestled themselves within the 
fortress, as in a sanctuary, and thence carried on a system 
of roguery and depredation at the expense of the honest 
inhabitants of the city. 

Thus there was a perpetual feud and heart-burning be- 
tween the captain-general and the governor, the more virulent 
on the part of the latter, inasmuch as the smallest of two 
neighboring potentates is always the most captious about 
his dignity. The stately palace of the captain-general stood 
in the Plaza Nueva, immediately at the foot of the hill of 
the Alhambra ; and here was always a bustle and parade of 
guards, and domestics, and city functionaries. A beetling 
bastion of the fortress overlooked the palace and public square 
in. front of it ; and on this bastion the old governor would 
occasionally strut backwards and forwards, with his Toledo 
girded by his side, keeping a wary eye down upon his rival, 
like a hawk reconnoitring his quarry from his nest in a 
dry tree. 

Whenever he descended into the city, it was in grand 
parade ; on horseback, surrounded by his guards ; or in his 
state coach, an ancient and unwieldy Spanish edifice of 
carved timber and gilt leather, drawn by eight mules, with 

[ -^85 ] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

running footmen, outriders, and lackeys ; on which occasions 
he flattered himself he impressed every beholder with awe 
and admiration as vicegerent of the king ; though the wits 
of Granada, particularly those who loitered about the palace 
of the captain-general, were apt to sneer at his petty parade, 
and, in allusion to the vagrant character of his subjects, to 
greet him with the appellation of " the king of the beggars." 
One of the most fruitful sources of dispute between these 
two doughty rivals was the right claimed by the governor to 
have all things passed free of duty through the city that were 
intended for the use of himself or his garrison. By degrees 
this privilege had given rise to extensive smuggling. A nest 
of contrabatidistas took up their abode in the hovels of the 
fortress and the numerous caves in its vicinity, and drove 
a thriving business under the connivance of the soldiers of 
the garrison. 

The vigilance of the captain-general was aroused. He con- 
sulted his legal adviser and factotum, a shrewd, meddlesome 
cscribano, or notary, who rejoiced in an opportunity of per- 
plexing the old potentate of the Alhambra, and involving him 
in a maze of legal subtleties. He advised the captain-general 
to insist upon the right of examining every convoy passing 
through the gates of his city, and penned a long letter for 
him in vindication of the right. Governor Manco was a 
straightforward cut-and-thrust old soldier, who hated an 
escribano worse than the devil, and this one in particular 
worse than all other cscribanos. 

"What!" said he, curling up his moustaches fiercely, 
" does the captain-general set his man of the pen to practise 
confusions upon me } I '11 let him see an old soldier is not 
to be baffled by schoolcraft." 

[286] 



THE GOVERNOR AND THE NOTARY 

He seized his pen and scrawled a short letter in a crabbed 
hand, in which, without deigning to enter into argument, he 
insisted on the right of transit free of search, and denounced 
vengeance on any custom-house officer who should lay his 
unhallowed hand on any convoy protected by the flag of the 
Alhambra. While this question was agitated between the 
two pragmatical potentates, it so happened that a mule laden 
with supplies for the fortress arrived one day at the gate of 
Xenil, by which it was to traverse a suburb of the city on 
its way to the Alhambra. The convoy was headed by a testy 
old corporal, who had long served under the governor, and 
was a man after his own heart ; as rusty and stanch as an 
old Toledo blade. 

As they approached the gate of the city, the corporal placed 
the banner of the Alhambra on the pack-saddle of the mule, 
and drawing himself up to a perfect perpendicular, advanced 
with his head dressed to the front, but with the wary side- 
glance of a cur passing through hostile ground and ready 
for a snap and a snarl. 

" Who goes there .? " said the sentinel at the gate. 

"Soldier of the Alhambra!" said the corporal, without 
turning his head. 

" What have you in charge .'' " 

" Provisions for the garrison." 

" Proceed." 

The corporal marched straight forward, followed by the 
convoy, but had not advanced many paces before a posse of 
custom-house officers rushed out of a small toll-house. 

" Hallo there ! " cried the leader. " Muleteer, halt, and 
open those packages." 

The corporal wheeled round and drew himself up in battle 

[287] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

array. " Respect the flag of the Alhambra," said he ; " these 
things are for the governor." 

'' Ajfigo for the governor and 2ifigo for his flag. Muleteer, 
halt, I say." 

" Stop the convoy at your peril ! " cried the corporal, cock- 
ing his musket. " Muleteer, proceed." 

The muleteer gave his beast a hearty thwack ; the custom- 
house officer sprang forward and seized the halter ; whereupon 
the corporal levelled his piece and shot him dead. 

The street was immediately in an uproar. 

The old corporal was seized, and after undergoing sundry 
kicks, and cuffs, and cudgellings, which are generally given 
impromptu by the mob in Spain as a foretaste of the after 
penalties of the law, he was loaded with irons and conducted 
to the city prison, while his comrades were permitted to pro- 
ceed with the convoy, after it had been well rummaged, to 
the Alhambra. 

The old governor was in a towering passion when he heard 
of this insult to his flag and capture of his corporal. For a 
time he stormed about the Moorish halls, and vapored about 
the bastions, and looked down fire and sword upon the palace 
of the captain-general. Having vented the first ebullition of 
his wrath, he despatched a message demanding the surrender 
of the corporal, as to him alone belonged the right of sitting 
in judgment on the offences of those under his command. 
The captain-general, aided by the pen of the delighted escri- 
bano, replied at great length, arguing that, as the offence had 
been committed within the walls of his city, and against one of 
his civil officers, it was clearly within his proper jurisdiction. 

The governor rejoined by a repetition of his demand ; the 
captain-general gave a sur-rejoinder of still greater length 

[288] 



THE GOVERNOR AND THE NOTARY 

and legal acumen ; the governor became hotter and more 
peremptory in his demands, and the captain-general cooler 
and more copious in his replies ; until the old lion-hearted 
soldier absolutely roared with fury at being thus entangled 
in the meshes of legal controversy. 

While the subtle cscribano was thus amusing himself at 
the expense of the governor, he was conducting the trial of 
the corporal, who, mewed up in a narrow dungeon of the 
prison, had merely a small grated window at which to show his 
iron-bound visage and receive the consolations of his friends. 

A mountain of written testimony was diligently heaped up, 
according to Spanish form, by the indefatigable cscribano ; 
the corporal was completely overwhelmed by it. He was 
convicted of murder, and sentenced to be hanged. 

It was in vain the governor sent down remonstrance and 
menace from the Alhambra. The fatal day was at hand, and 
the corporal was put in capilla, that is to say, in the chapel 
of the prison, as is always done with culprits the day before 
execution, that they may meditate on their approaching end 
and repent them of their sins. 

Seeing things drawing to extremity, the old governor 
determined to attend to the affair in person. For this purpose 
he ordered out his carriage of state, and, surrounded by his 
guards, rumbled down the avenue of the Alhambra into the 
city. Driving to the house of the cscribano, he summoned 
him to the portal. 

The eye of the old governor gleamed like a coal at behold- 
ing the smirking man of the law advancing with an air of 
exultation. 

" What is this I hear," cried he, " that you are about to put 
to death one of my soldiers } " 

[289] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

" All according to law — all in strict form of justice," said 
the self-sufficient escribano, chuckling and rubbing his hands ; 
" I can show your Excellency the written testimony in the case." 

" Fetch it hither," said the governor. The escribano bustled 
into his office, delighted with having another opportunity of 
displaying his ingenuity at the expense of the hard-headed 
veteran. He returned with a satchel full of papers, and began 
to read a long deposition with professional volubility. By this 
time a crowd had collected, listening with outstretched necks 
and gaping mouths. 

" Prithee, man, get into the carriage, out of this pestilent 
throng, that I may the better hear thee," said the governor. 

The escribano entered the carriage, when, in a twinkling, 
the door was closed, the coachman smacked his whip, — 
mules, carriage, guards, and all dashed off at a thundering 
rate, leaving the crowd in gaping wonderment ; nor did the 
governor pause until he had lodged his prey in one of the 
strongest dungeons of the Alhambra. 

He then sent down a flag of truce in military style, pro- 
posing a cartel, or exchange of prisoners, — the corporal for 
the notary. The pride of the captain-general was piqued ; 
he returned a contemptuous refusal, and forthwith caused a 
gallows, tall and strong, to be erected in the centre of the 
Plaza Nueva for the execution of the corporal. 

"Oho! is that the game.?" said Governor Manco. He 
gave orders, and immediately a gibbet was reared on the verge 
of the great beetling bastion that overlooked the Plaza. 
" Now," said he, in a message to the captain-general, '" hang 
my soldier when you please ; but at the same time that he 
is swung off in the square, look up to see your escribano 
dangling against the sky." 

[290] 



THE GOVERNOR AND THE NOTARY 

The captain-general was inflexible ; troops were paraded 
in the square ; the drums beat, the bell tolled. An immense 
multitude of amateurs gathered together to behold the exe- 
cution. On the other hand, the governor paraded his garri- 
son on the bastion, and tolled the funeral dirge of the notary 
from the Torre de la Campana, or Tower of the Bell. 

The notary's wife pressed through the crowd, with a whole 
progeny of little embryo escribanos at her heels, and throw- 
ing herself at the feet of the captain-general, implored him 
not to sacrifice the life of her husband, and the welfare of 
herself and her numerous little ones, to a point of pride ; "for 
you know the old governor too well," said she, " to doubt that 
he will put his threat into execution, if you hang the soldier." 

The captain-general was overpowered by her tears and 
lamentations, and the clamors of her callow brood. The corpo- 
ral was sent up to the Alhambra, under a guard, in his gallows 
garb, like a hooded friar, but with head erect and a face of 
iron. The escribano was demanded in exchange, according 
to the cartel. The once bustling and self-sufficient man of 
the law was drawn forth from his dungeon more dead than 
alive. All his flippancy and conceit had evaporated ; his hair, 
it is said, had nearly turned gray with affright, and he had 
a downcast, dogged look, as if he still felt the halter round 
his neck. 

The old governor stuck his one arm akimbo, and for a 
moment surveyed him with an iron smile. " Henceforth, my 
friend," said he, " moderate your zeal in hurrying others to 
the gallows ; be not too certain of your safety, even though 
you should have the law on your side ; and above all, take 
care how you play off your schoolcraft another time upon an 
old soldier." 

[291] 





- v^^"{;'^n^is.kW 



GOVERNOR MANGO AND THE SOLDIER 




'HILE Governor Manco, or the "one-armed," 
kept up a show of mihtary state in the Alham- 
bra, he became nettled at the reproaches contin- 
ually cast upon his fortress, of being a nestling-place of 
rogues and contrabandistas. On a sudden, the old poten- 
tate determined on reform, and setting vigorously to work, 
ejected whole nests of vagabonds out of the fortress and 
the gypsy caves with which the surrounding hills are honey- 
combed. He sent out soldiers, also, to patrol the avenues 
and footpaths, with orders to take up all suspicious persons. 
One bright summer morning a patrol, consisting of the 
testy old corporal who had distinguished himself in the affair 
of the notary, a trumpeter, and two privates, was seated un- 
der the garden-wall of the Generalife, beside the road which 
leads down from the Mountain of the Sun, when they heard 

[292] 



GOVERNOR MANGO AND THE SOLDIER 

the tramp of a horse, and a male voice singing in rough though 
not unmusical tones an old Castilian campaigning-song. 

Presently they beheld a sturdy, sunburnt fellow, clad in the 
ragged garb of a foot-soldier, leading a powerful Arabian 
horse caparisoned in the ancient Morisco fashion. 

Astonished at the sight of a strange soldier descending, 
steed in hand, from that solitary mountain, the corporal stepped 
forth and challenged him, 

"' Who goes there ? " 

" A friend." 

" Who and what are you ? " 

'" A poor soldier just from the wars, with a cracked crown 
and empty purse for a reward." 

By this time they were enabled to view him more narrowly. 
He had a black patch across his forehead, which, with a 
grizzled beard, added to a certain dare-devil cast of counte- 
nance, while a slight squint threw into the whole an occa- 
sional gleam of roguish good-humor. 

Having answered the questions of the patrol, the soldier 
seemed to consider himself entitled to make others in return. 
" May I ask," said he, " what city is that which I see at the 
foot of the hill ? " 

"What city!" cried the trumpeter; "come, that's too 
bad. Here 's a fellow lurking about the Mountain of the 
Sun, and demands the name of the great city of Granada ! " 

" Granada ! can it be possible ? " 

" Perhaps not ! " rejoined the trumpeter ; "and perhaps you 
have no idea that yonder are the towers of the Alhambra." 

" Son of a trumpet," replied the stranger, "do not trifle 
with me ; if this be indeed the Alhambra, I have some strange 
matters to reveal to the governor." 

[293] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

"You will have an opportunity," said the corporal, "for 
we mean to take you before him." By this time the trump- 
eter had seized the bridle of the steed, the two privates had 
each secured an arm of the soldier, the corporal put himself 
in front, gave the word, "Forward — march!" and away 
they marched for the Alhambra. 

The sight of a ragged foot-soldier and a fine Arabian horse, 
brought in captive by the patrol, attracted the attention of all 
the idlers of the fortress, and of those gossip groups that 
■generally assemble about wells and fountains at early dawn. 
The wheel of the cistern paused in its rotations, and the slip- 
shod servant-maid stood gaping, with pitcher in hand, as the 
corporal passed by with his prize. A motley train gradually 
gathered in the rear of the escort. 

Knowing nods and winks and conjectures passed from one 
to another. " It is a deserter," said one ; '' Acojitrabafidista," 
said another; "A bandolero," said a third; — -until it was 
affirmed that a captain of a desperate band of robbers had 
been captured by the prowess of the corporal and his patrol. 
" Well, well," said the old cronies, one to another, "captain 
or not, let him get out of the grasp of old Governor Manco 
if he can, though he is but one-handed." 

Governor Manco was seated in one of the inner halls of 
the Alhambra, taking his morning's cup of chocolate. A de- 
mure, dark-eyed damsel of Malaga, the daughter of his house- 
keeper, was attending upon him. The world hinted that the 
damsel, who, with all her demureness, was a sly buxom bag- 
gage, had found out a soft spot in the iron heart of the old 
governor, and held complete control over him. When word 
was brought that a suspicious stranger had been taken lurk- 
ing about the fortress, and was actually in the lower court, in 

[294] 



GOVERNOR MANGO AND THE SOLDIER 

durance of the corporal, waiting the pleasure of his Excellency, 
the pride and stateliness of office swelled the bosom of the 
governor. Giving back his chocolate-cup into the hands of the 
demure damsel, he called for his basket-hilted sword, girded 
it to his side, twirled up his moustaches, took his seat in a 
large high-backed chair, assumed a bitter and forbidding as- 
pect, and ordered the prisoner into his presence. The sol- 
dier was brought in, still closely pinioned by his captors, and 
guarded by the corporal. He maintained, however, a reso- 
lute, self-confident air, and returned the sharp, scrutinizing 
look of the governor with an easy squint, which by no means 
pleased the punctilious old potentate. 

'" Well, culprit," said the governor, after he had regarded 
him for a moment in silence, "' what have you to say for 
yourself — who are you.''" 

" A soldier, just from the wars, who has brought away 
nothing but scars and bruises." 

' ' A soldier — humph - — a foot-soldier by your garb. I un- 
derstand you have a fine Arabian horse. I presume you brought 
him too from the wars, besides your scars and bruises." 

"' May it please your Excellency, I have something strange 
to tell about that horse. Indeed I have one of the most won- 
derful things to relate. Something too that concerns the 
security of this fortress, indeed of all Granada. But it is a 
matter to be imparted only to your private ear, or in presence 
of such only as are in your confidence." 

The governor considered for a moment, and then directed 
the corporal and his men to withdraw, but to post themselves 
outside of the door, and be ready at a call. " This damsel," 
nodding towards the handmaid, who had loitered with an 
air of great curiosity, " this damsel is of great secrecy and 

[295] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

discretion, and to be trusted with anything," When all the 
rest had withdrawn, the soldier commenced his story. He 
was a fluent, smooth-tongued varlet, and had a command of 
language above his apparent rank. 

"' May it please your Excellency," said he, "I am, as I 
before observed, a soldier, and have seen some hard service, 
but my term of enlistment being expired, I was discharged, 
not long since, from the army at Valladolid, and set out on 
foot for my native village in Andalusia, Yesterday evening 
the sun went down as I was traversing a great dry plain of 
Old Castile," 

" Hold ! " cried the governor, " what is this you say ,-• Old 
Castile is some two or three hundred miles from this," 

" Even so," replied the soldier, coolly, " I told your Ex- 
cellency I had strange things to relate ; but not more strange 
than true, as your Excellency will find, if you will deign me 
a patient hearing." 

" Proceed, culprit," said the governor, twirling up his 
moustaches, 

" As the sun went down," continued the soldier, " I cast 
my eyes about in search of quarters for the night, but as far 
as my sight could reach there were no signs of habitation, I 
saw that I should have to make my bed on the naked plain, 
with my knapsack for a pillow ; but your Excellency is an 
old soldier, and knows that to one who has been in the wars, 
such a night's lodging is no great hardship," 

The governor nodded assent, as he drew his pocket- 
handkerchief out of the basket-hilt to drive away a fly that 
buzzed about his nose, 

"' Well, to make a long story short," continued the soldier, 
'" I trudged forward for several miles until I came to a bridge 

[296] 



GOVERNOR MANGO AND THE SOLDIER 

over a deep ravine, through which ran a httle thread of water, 
ahnost dried up by the summer heat. At one end of the 
bridge was a Moorish tower, the upper end all in ruins, but 
a vault in the foundation quite entire. Here, thinks I, is a 
good place to make a halt ; so I went down to the stream, 
and took a hearty drink, for the water was pure and sweet, 
and I was parched with thirst ; then, opening my wallet, I 
took out an onion and a few crusts, which were all my pro- 
visions, and seating myself on a stone on the margin of the 
stream, began to make my supper, — intending afterwards to 
quarter myself for the night in the vault of the tower ; and 
capital quarters they would have been for a campaigner just 
from the wars, as your Excellency, who is an old soldier, 
may suppose." 

" I have put up gladly with worse in my time," said the 
governor, returning his pocket-handkerchief into the hilt of 
his sword. 

" While I was quietly crunching my crust," pursued the 
soldier, " I heard something stir within the vault ; I listened 
— it was the tramp of a horse. By and by a man came forth 
from a door in the foundation of the tower, close by the water's 
edge, leading a powerful horse by the bridle. I could not well 
make out what he was, by the starlight. It had a suspicious 
look to be lurking among the ruins of a tower, in that wild 
solitary place. He might be a mere wayfarer, like myself ; 
he might be a contrabandista ; he might be a bandolero ! 
what of that 1 thank heaven and my poverty, I had nothing 
to lose ; so I sat still and crunched my crust. 

"He led his horse to the water, close by where I was sit- 
ting, so that I had a fair opportunity of reconnoitring him. 
To my surprise he was dressed in a Moorish garb, wdth a 

[297] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

cuirass of steel, and a polished skull-cap that I distinguished 
by the reflection of the stars upon it. His horse, too, was 
harnessed in the Morisco fashion, with great shovel stirrups. 
He led him, as I said, to the side of the stream, into which 
the animal plunged his head almost to the eyes, and drank 
until I thought he would have burst. 

" ' Comrade,' said I, ' your steed drinks well ; it 's a good 
sign when a horse plunges his muzzle bravely into the 
water.' 

" ' He may well drink,' said the stranger, speaking with a 
Moorish accent ; " it is a good year since he had hife last 
draught.' 

"'By Santiago,' said I, 'that beats even the camels I have 
seen in Africa. But come, you seem to be something of a 
soldier, will you sit down and take part of a soldier's fare .-• ' 
In fact, I felt the want of a companion in this lonely place, 
and was willing to put up with an infidel. Besides, as your 
Excellency well knows, a soldier is never very particular 
about the faith of his company, and soldiers of all countries 
are comrades on peaceable ground." 

The governor again nodded assent. 

" Well, as I was saying, I invited him to share my supper, 
such as it was, for I could not do less in common hospitality. 
'I have no time to pause for meat or drink,' said he, 'I have 
a long journey to make before morning.' 

" ' In what direction .'' ' said I. 

" ' Andalusia,' said he. 

" ' Exactly my route,' said I ; 'so, as you won't stop and 
eat with me, perhaps you will let me mount and ride with 
you. I see your horse is of a powerful frame ; I '11 warrant 
he '11 carry double.' 

[298] 



GOVERNOR MANGO AND THE SOLDIER 

" "Agreed," said the trooper; and it would not have been 
civil and soldierlike to refuse, especially as I had offered to 
share my supper with him. So up he mounted, and up I 
mounted behind him. 

" " Hold fast,' said he, " my steed goes like the wind.' 

" ' Never fear me,' said I, and so off we set. 

"' From a walk the horse soon passed to a trot, from a trot 
to a gallop, and from a gallop to a harum-scarum scamper. 
It seemed as if rocks, trees, houses, everything flew hurry- 
scurry behind us. 

'" " What town is this .? ' said I. 

" " Segovia,' said he ; and before the word was out of his 
mouth, the towers of Segovia were out of sight. We swept 
up the Guadarama Mountains, and down by the Escurial ; 
and we skirted the walls of Madrid, and we scoured away 
across the plains of La Mancha. In this way we went up 
hill and down dale, by towers and cities, all buried in deep 
sleep, and across mountains, and plains, and rivers, just 
glimmering in the starlight. 

" To make a long story short, and not to fatigue your 
Excellency, the trooper suddenly pulled up on the side of a 
mountain. ' Here we are,' said he, ' at the end of our 
journey.' I looked about, but could see no signs of habita- 
tion ; nothing but the mouth of a cavern. While I looked I 
saw multitudes of people in Moorish dresses, some on horse- 
back, some on foot, arriving as if borne by the wind from 
all points of the compass, and hurrying into the mouth of the 
cavern like bees into a hive. Before I could ask a question, 
the trooper struck his long Moorish spurs into the horse's 
flanks, and dashed in with the throng. We passed along a 
steep winding way, that descended into the very bowels of 

[299] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

the mountain. As we pushed on, a hght began to glimmer 
up, by Httle and httle, Hke the first gHmmerings of day, but 
what caused it I could not discern. It grew stronger and 
stronger, and enabled me to see everything around. I now 
noticed, as we passed along, great caverns, opening to the 
right and left, like halls in an arsenal. In some there were 
shields, and helmets, and cuirasses, and lances, and cimeters, 
hanging against the walls ; in others there were great heaps 
of warlike munitions and camp-equipage lying upon the ground. 

" It would have done your Excellency's heart good, being 
an old soldier, to have seen such grand provision for war. 
Then, in other caverns, there were long rows of horsemen 
armed to the teeth, with lances raised and banners unfurled, 
all ready for the field ; but they all sat motionless in their 
saddles, like so many statues. In other halls were warriors 
sleeping on the ground beside their horses, and foot-soldiers 
in groups ready to fall into the ranks. All were in old- 
fashioned Moorish dresses and armor. 

" Well, your Excellency, to cut a long story short, we at 
length entered an immense cavern, or I may say palace, of 
grotto-work, the walls of which seemed to be veined with 
gold and silver, and to sparkle with diamonds and sapphires 
and all kinds of precious stones. At the upper end sat a 
Moorish king on a golden throne, with his nobles on each 
side, and a guard of African blacks with drawn cimeters. 
All the crowd that continued to flock in, and amounted to 
thousands and thousands, passed one by one before his 
throne, each paying homage as he passed. Some of the 
multitude were dressed in magnificent robes, without stain 
or blemish, and sparkling with jewels ; others in burnished 
and enamelled armor ; while others were in mouldered and 

[300] 



GOVERNOR MANGO AND THE SOLDIER 

mildewed garments, and in armor all battered and dented 
and covered with rust. 

" I had hitherto held my tongue, for your Excellency well 
knows it is not for a soldier to ask many questions when 
on duty, but I could keep silent no longer. 

"'Prithee, comrade,' said I, 'what is the meaning of 
all this ? ' 

This,' said the trooper, ' is a great and fearful mystery. 
Know, O Christian, that you see before you the court and 
army of Boabdil the last king of Granada.' 

" ' What is this you tell me ? ' cried I. ' Boabdil and his 
court were exiled from the land hundreds of years agone, 
and all died in Africa.' 

'" ' So it is recorded in your lying chronicles,' replied the 
Moor ; ' but know that Boabdil and the warriors who made 
the last struggle for Granada were all shut up in the moun- 
tain by powerful enchantment. As for the king and army 
that marched forth from Granada at the time of the sur- 
render, they were a mere phantom train of spirits and 
demons, permitted to assume those shapes to deceive the 
Christian sovereigns. And furthermore let me tell you, 
friend, that all Spain is a country under the power of en- 
chantment. There is not a mountain cave, not a lonely watch- 
tower in the plains, nor ruined castle on the hills, but has 
some spell-bound warriors sleeping from age to age within 
its vaults, until the sins are expiated for which Allah per- 
mitted the dominion to pass for a time out of the hands of 
the faithful. Once every year, on the eve of St. John, they 
are released from enchantment, from sunset to sunrise, and 
permitted to repair here to pay homage to their sovereign ! 
and the crowds which you beheld swarming into the cavern 

[301 ] 



I'HE ALHAMBRA 

are Moslem warriors from their haunts in all parts of Spain. 
For my own part, you saw the ruined tower of the bridge in 
Old Castile, where I have now wintered and summered for 
many hundred years, and where I must be back again by 
daybreak. As to the battalions of horse and foot which you 
beheld drawn up in array in the neighboring caverns, they 
are the spell-bound warriors of Granada. It is written in the 
book of fate, that when the enchantment is broken, Boabdil 
will descend from the mountain at the head of this army, 
resume his throne in the Alhambra and his sway of Granada, 
and gathering together the enchanted warriors from all parts 
of Spain, will reconquer the Peninsula and restore it to 
Moslem rule.' 

" ' And when shall this happen .'' ' said I. 

" ' Allah alone knows : we had hoped the day of deliverance 
was at hand ; but there reigns at present a vigilant governor 
in the Alhambra, a stanch old soldier, well known as Governor 
Manco. While such a warrior holds command of the very 
outpost, and stands ready to check the first irruption from 
the mountain, I fear Boabdil and his soldiery must be con- 
tent to rest upon their arms.' " 

Here the governor raised himself somewhat perpendicu- 
larly, adjusted his sword, and twirled up his moustaches. 

" To make a long story short, and not to fatigue your 
Excellency, the trooper, having given me this account, dis- 
mounted from his steed. 

"'Tarry here,' said he, 'and guard my steed while I go 
and bow the knee to Boabdil.' So saying, he strode away 
among the throng that pressed forward to the throne. 

" ' What 's to be done .'' ' thought I, when thus left to 
myself ; ' shall I wait here until this infidel returns to whisk 



GOVERNOR MANCO AND THE SOLDIER 

me off on his goblin steed, the Lord knows where ; or shall 
I make the most of my time and beat a retreat from this 
hobgoblin community ? ' A soldier's mind is soon made up, 
as your Excellency well knows. As to the horse, he belonged 
to an avowed enemy of the faith and the realm, and was a 
fair prize according to the rules of war. So hoisting myself 
from the crupper into the saddle, I turned the reins, struck 
the Moorish stirrups into the sides of the steed, and put him 
to make the best of his way out of the passage by which he 
had entered. As we scoured by the halls where the Moslem 
horsemen sat in motionless battalions, I thought I heard the 
clang of armor and a hollow murmur of voices. I gave the 
steed another taste of the stirrups and doubled my speed. 
There was now a sound behind me like a rushing blast ; I 
heard the clatter of a thousand hoofs ; a countless throng 
overtook me. I was borne along in the press, and hurled 
forth from the mouth of the cavern, while thousands of 
shadowy forms were swept off in every direction by the 
four winds of heaven. 

" In the whirl and confusion of the scene I was thrown 
senseless to the earth. When I came to myself, I was 
lying on the brow of a hill, with the Arabian steed standing 
beside me ; for in falling, my arm had slipped within the 
bridle, which, I presume, prevented his whisking off to Old 
Castile. 

" Your Excellency may easily judge of my surprise, on 
looking round, to behold hedges of aloes and Indian figs and 
other proofs of a southern climate, and to see a great city 
below me, with towers, and palaces, and a grand cathedral. 

" I descended the hill cautiously, leading my steed, for I 
was afraid to mount him again, lest he should play me some 

[303] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

slippery trick. As I descended I met with your patrol, who 
let me into the secret that it was Granada that lay before me, 
and that I was actually under the walls of the Alhambra, 
the fortress of the redoubted Governor Manco, the terror of 
all enchanted Moslems. When I heard this, I determined 
at once to seek your Excellency, to inform you of all that I 
had seen, and to warn you of the perils that surround and 
undermine you, that you may take measures in time to guard 
your fortress, and the kingdom itself, from this intestine 
army that lurks in the very bowels of the land." 

"And prithee, friend, you who are a veteran campaigner, 
and have seen so much service," said the governor, "' how 
would you advise me to proceed, in order to prevent this 
evil ? " 

"It is not for a humble private of the ranks," said the 
soldier, modestly, "to pretend to instruct a commander of 
your Excellency's sagacity, but it appears to me that your 
Excellency might cause all the caves and entrances into the 
mountains to be walled up with solid mason-work, so that 
Boabdil and his army might be completely corked up in 
their subterranean habitation." 

The governor now placed his arm akimbo, with his hand 
resting on the hilt of his Toledo, fixed his eye upon the 
soldier, and gently wagging his head from one side to the 
other, — 

" So, friend," said he, " then you really suppose I am 
to be gulled with this cock-and-bull story about enchanted 
mountains and enchanted Moors .'' Hark ye, culprit ! — not 
another word. An old soldier you may be, but you '11 find 
you have an older soldier to deal with, and one not easily 
outgeneralled. Ho ! guards there ! put this fellow in irons." 

[304] 



GOVERNOR MANCO AND THE SOLDIER 

The demure handmaid would have put in a word in favor 
of the prisoner, but the governor silenced her with a look. 

As they were pinioning the soldier, one of the guards felt 
something of bulk in his pocket, and drawing it forth, found 
a long leathern purse that appeared to be well filled. Holding 
it by one corner, he turned out the contents upon the table 
before the governor, and never did freebooter's bag make 
more gorgeous delivery. Out tumbled rings and jewels, and 
rosaries of pearls, and sparkling diamond crosses, and a 
profusion of ancient golden coin, some of which fell jingling 
to the floor, and rolled away to the uttermost parts of the 
chamber. 

For a time the functions of justice were suspended ; there 
was a universal scramble after the glittering fugitives. The 
governor alone, who was imbued with true Spanish pride, 
maintained his stately decorum, though his eye betrayed a 
little anxiety until the last coin and jewel was restored to 
the sack, 

" I was just going to tell your Excellency when I was 
interrupted," said the stranger, "that on taking possession 
of the trooper's horse, I unhooked a leathern sack which 
hung at the saddle-bow, and which I presume contained 
the plunder of his campaignings in the days of old, when 
the Moors overran the country." 

" Mighty well ; at present you will make up your mind to 
take up your quarters in a chamber of the Vermilion Tower, 
which, though not under a magic spell, will hold you as safe 
as any cave of your enchanted Moors." 

"Your Excellency will do as you think proper," said the 
prisoner, coolly. " I shall be thankful to your Excellency for 
any accommodation in the fortress. A soldier who has been 

[305] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

in the wars, as your Excellency well knows, is not particular 
about his lodgings. Provided I have a snug dungeon and 
regular rations, I shall manage to make myself comfortable. 
I would only entreat that while your Excellency is so careful 
about me, you would have an eye to your fortress, and think 
on the hint I dropped about stopping up the entrances to 
the mountain." 

Here ended the scene. The prisoner was conducted to a 
strong dungeon in the Vermilion Tower, the Arabian steed 
was led to his Excellency's stable, and the trooper's sack 
was deposited in his Excellency's strong box. 

To explain these prompt and rigid measures on the part 
of old Governor Manco, it is proper to observe, that about 
this time the Alpuxarra Mountains in the neighborhood of 
Granada were terribly infested by a gang of robbers, under 
the command of a daring chief named Manuel Borasco, who 
was accustomed to prowl about the country, and even to 
enter the city in various disguises, to gain intelligence of the 
departure of convoys of merchandise, or travellers with well- 
lined purses, whom they took care to waylay in distant and 
solitary passes of the road. These repeated and daring out- 
rages had awakened the attention of government, and the 
commanders of the various posts had received instructions 
to be on the alert, and to take up all suspicious stragglers. 
Governor Manco was particularly zealous in consequence of 
the various stigmas that had been cast upon his fortress, 
and he now doubted not he had entrapped some formidable 
desperado of this gang. 

In the meantime the story took wind, and became the talk, 
not merely of the fortress, but of the whole city of Granada. 
It was said that the noted robber Manuel Borasco, the terror 

[306] 



GOVERNOR MANGO AND THE SOLDIER 

of the Alpuxarras, had fallen into the clutches of old Gov- 
ernor Manco, and been cooped up by him in a dungeon of 
the Vermilion Tower ; and every one who had been robbed 
by him flocked to recognize the marauder. The Vermilion 
Tower, as is well known, stands apart from the Alhambra on 
a sister hill, separated from the main fortress by the ravine 
down which passes the main avenue. There were no outer 
walls, but a sentinel patrolled before the tower. The window 
of the chamber in which the soldier was confined was strongly 
grated, and looked upon a small esplanade. Here the good 
folks of Granada repaired to gaze at him, as they would at 
a laughing hyena, grinning through the cage of a menagerie. 
Nobody, however, recognized him for Manuel Borasco, for 
that terrible robber was noted for a ferocious physiognomy, 
and had by no means the good-humored squint of the prisoner. 
Visitors came not merely from the city, but from all parts of 
the country ; but nobody knew him, and there began to be 
doubts in the minds of the common people whether there 
might not be some truth in his story. That Boabdil and his 
army were shut up in the mountain, was an old tradition 
which many of the ancient inhabitants had heard from their 
fathers. Numbers went up to the Mountain of the Sun, or 
rather of St. Elena, in search of the cave mentioned by the 
soldier ; and saw and peeped into the deep, dark pit, descend- 
ing, no one knows how far, into the mountain, and which 
remains there to this day — the fabled entrance to the sub- 
terranean abode of Boabdil. 

By degrees the soldier became popular with the common 
people. A freebooter of the mountains is by no means the 
opprobrious character in Spain that a robber is in any other 
country ; on the contrary, he is a kind of chivalrous personage 

[307] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

in the eyes of the lower classes. There is always a disposi- 
tion, also, to cavil at the conduct of those in command ; and 
many began to murmur at the high-handed measures of old 
Governor Manco, and to look upon the prisoner in the light 
of a martyr. 

The soldier, moreover, was a merry, waggish fellow, that 
had a joke for every one who came near his window, and a 
soft speech for every female. He had procured an old guitar, 
also, and would sit by his window and sing ballads and love- 
ditties, to the delight of the women of the neighborhood, who 
would assemble on the esplanade in the evening and dance 
boleros to his music. Having trimmed off his rough beard, 
his sunburnt face found favor in the eyes of the fair, and the 
demure handmaid of the governor declared that his squint 
was perfectly irresistible. This kind-hearted damsel had from 
the first evinced a deep sympathy in his fortunes, and having 
in vain tried to mollify the governor, had set to work privately 
to mitigate the rigor of his dispensations. Every day she 
brought the prisoner some crumbs of comfort which had 
fallen from the governor's table, or been abstracted from his 
larder, together with, now and then, a consoling bottle of 
choice Valdepenas, or rich Malaga. 

While this petty treason was going on in the very centre 
of the old governor's citadel, a storm of open war was brew- 
ing up among his external foes. The circumstance of a bag 
of gold and jewels having been found upon the person of 
the supposed robber, had been reported, with many exag- 
gerations, in Granada. A question of territorial jurisdiction 
was immediately started by the governor's inveterate rival, 
the captain-general. He insisted that the prisoner had been 
captured without the precincts of the Alhambra, and within 

[308] 



GOVERNOR MAN CO AND THE SOLDIER 

the rules of his authority. He demanded his body, therefore, 
and the spolia opinta taken with him. The feuds ran high. 
The governor was furious, and swore, rather than surrender 
his captive, he would hang him up within the Alhambra, as 
a spy caught within the purlieus of the fortress. 

The captain-general threatened to send a body of soldiers 
to transfer the prisoner from the Vermilion Tower to the 
city. "Let them come," said he; "they'll find me before- 
hand with them. He must rise bright and early who would 
take in an old soldier." He accordingly issued orders to have 
the prisoner removed, at daybreak, to the donjon keep within 
the walls of the Alhambra. "And d'ye hear, child," said he 
to his demure handmaid, " tap at my door, and wake me 
before cock-crowing, that I may see to the matter myself." 

The day dawned, the cock crowed, but nobody tapped at 
the door of the governor. The sun rose high above the 
mountain-tops, and glittered in at his casement, ere the gov- 
ernor was awakened from his morning dreams by his veteran 
corporal, who stood before him with terror stamped upon his 
iron visage. 

" He 's off ! he 's gone ! " cried the corporal, gasping for 
breath. 

" Who 's off — who 's gone .-* " 

"The soldier — the robber — the devil, for aught I know. 
His dungeon is empty, but the door locked ; no one knows 
how he has escaped out of it." 

" Who saw him last .'' " 

"Your handmaid ; she brought him his supper." 

" Let her be called instantly." 

Here was new matter of confusion. The chamber of the 
demure damsel was likewise empty ; her bed had not been 

[309] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

slept in. She had doubtless gone off with the culprit, as she had 
appeared for some days past to have frequent conversations 
with him. 

This was wounding the old governor in a tender part, but 
he had scarce time to wince at it, when new misfortunes 
broke upon his view. On going into his cabinet he found 
his strong box open, the leather purse of the trooper ab- 
stracted, and with it a couple of corpulent bags of doubloons. 

But how, and which way, had the fugitives escaped ? An 
old peasant, who lived in a cottage by the roadside leading 
up into the Sierra, declared that he had heard the tramp of 
a powerful steed, just before daybreak, passing up into the 
mountains. He had looked out at his casement, and could 
just distinguish a horseman, with a female seated before him. 

" Search the stables ! " cried Governor Manco. The stables 
were searched. All the horses were in their stalls, excepting 
the Arabian steed. In his place was a stout cudgel, tied to 
the manger, and on it a label bearing these words, "A gift 
to Governor Manco, from an Old Soldier." 



[310] 




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.ji^JV^ ,-y Bn ST VV -fc ^^ 

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'i 



THE CRUSADE OF THE GRAND MASTER OF 
ALCANTARA 



N THE course of a morning's research among the old 
chronicles in the Library of the University, I came upon 
a little episode in the history of Granada, so strongly 
characteristic of the bigot zeal which sometimes inflamed the 
Christian enterprises against this splendid but devoted city, 
that I was tempted to draw it forth from the parchment- 
bound volume in which it lay entombed, and submit it to the 
reader. 

In the year of redemption, 1394, there was a valiant and 
devout grand master of Alcantara, named Martin Yanez de 
Barbudo, who was inflamed with a vehement desire to serve 
God and fight the Moors. Unfortunately for this brave and 
pious cavalier, a profound peace existed between the Christian 
and Moslem powers. Henry HI had just ascended the throne 
of Castile, and Yusef ben Mohammed had succeeded to the 



THE ALHAMBRA 

throne of Granada, and both were disposed to continue the 
peace which had prevailed between their fathers. The grand 
master looked with repining at Moorish banners and weapons, 
which decorated his castle hall, trophies of the exploits of his 
predecessors, and repined at his fate to exist in a period of 
such inglorious tranquillity. 

At length his impatience broke through all bounds, and 
seeing that he could find no public war in which to engage, 
he resolved to carve out a little war for himself. Such at least 
is the account given by some ancient chronicles, though others 
give the following as the motive for this sudden resolution to 
go campaigning. 

As the grand master was one day seated at table with sev- 
eral of his cavaliers, a man suddenly entered the hall, — tall, 
meagre, and bony, with haggard countenance and fiery eye. 
All recognized him for a hermit, who had been a soldier in 
his youth, but now led a life of penitence in a cave. He ad- 
vanced to the table and struck upon it with a fist that seemed 
of iron. "Cavaliers," said he, "why sit ye here idly, with 
your weapons resting against the wall, while the enemies of 
the faith lord it over the fairest portion of the land .-* " 

" Holy father, what wouldst thou have us do," asked the 
grand master, " seeing the wars are over and our swords 
bound up by treaties of peace .? " 

"Listen to my words," replied the hermit. "As I was 
seated late at night at the entrance of my cave, contemplating 
the heavens, I fell into a reverie, and a wonderful vision was 
presented to me. I beheld the moon, a mere crescent, yet 
luminous as the brightest silver, and it hung in the heavens 
over the kingdom of Granada. While I was looking at it, 
behold there shot forth from the firmament a blazing star, 



THE CRUSADE 

which, as it went, drew after it all the stars of heaven ; and 
they assailed the moon and drove it from the skies ; and the 
whole firmament was filled with the glory of that blazing star. 
While mine eyes were yet dazzled by this wondrous sight, 
some one stood by me, with snowy wings and a shining coun- 
tenance. ' O man of prayer,' said he, ' get thee to the grand 
master of Alcantara, and tell him of the vision thou hast be- 
held. He is the blazing star, destined to drive the crescent, 
the Moslem emblem, from the land. Let him boldly draw 
the sword and continue the good work begun by Pelazo of 
old, and victory will assuredly attend his banner.' " 

The grand master listened to the hermit as to a messenger 
from heaven, and followed his counsel in all things. By his 
advice he despatched two of his stoutest warriors, armed 
cap-a-pie, on an embassy to the Moorish king. They entered 
the gates of Granada without molestation, as the nations 
were at peace, and made their way to the Alhambra, where 
they were promptly admitted to the king, who received them 
in the Hall of Ambassadors. They delivered their message 
roundly and hardly. " We come, O king, from Don Martin 
Yaiiez de Barbudo, grand master of Alcantara, who affirms 
the faith of Jesus Christ to be true and holy, and that of 
Mahomet false and detestable ; and he challenges thee to 
maintain the contrary, hand to hand, in single combat. 
Shouldst thou refuse, he offers to combat with one hundred 
cavaliers against two hundred, or, in like proportion, to the 
number of one thousand, always allowing thy faith a double 
number of champions. Remember, O king, that thou canst 
not refuse this challenge, since thy prophet, knowing the 
impossibility of maintaining his doctrines by argument, has 
commanded his followers to enforce them with the sword." 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The beard of King Yusef trembled with indignation. 
" The master of Alcantara," said he, " is a madman to send 
such a message, and ye are saucy knaves to bring it." 

So saying, he ordered the ambassadors to be thrown into 
a dungeon, by way of giving them a lesson in diplomacy ; 
and they were roughly treated on their way thither by the 
populace, who were exasperated at this insult to their sovereign 
and their faith. 

The grand master of Alcantara could scarcely credit the 
tidings of the maltreatment of his messengers ; but the her- 
mit rejoiced when they were repeated to him. " God," said 
he, "" has blinded this infidel king for his downfall. Since he 
has sent no reply to thy defiance, consider it accepted. Mar- 
shal thy forces, therefore ; march forward to Granada ; pause 
not until thou seest the gate of Elvira. A miracle will be 
wrought in thy favor. There will be a great battle ; the 
enemy will be overthrown ; but not one of thy soldiers will 
be slain." 

The grand master called upon every warrior zealous in the 
Christian cause to aid him in this crusade. In a little while 
three hundred horsemen and a thousand foot-soldiers rallied 
under his standard. The horsemen were veterans, seasoned 
to battle, and well armed ; but the infantry were raw and 
undisciplined. The victory, however, was to be miraculous ; 
the grand master was a man of surpassing faith, and knew 
that the weaker the means the greater the miracle. He sallied 
forth confidently, therefore, with his little army, and the 
hermit strode ahead, bearing a cross on the end of a long 
pole, and beneath it the pennon of the Order of Alcantara. 

As they approached the city of Cordova they were over- 
taken by messengers, spurring in all haste, bearing missives 

[314] 



THE CRUSADE 

from the Castilian monarch, forbidding the enterprise. The 
grand master vvas a man of a single mind and a single will ; 
in other words, a man of one idea, " Were I on any other 
errand," said he, " I should obey these letters as coming 
from my lord the king ; but I am sent by a higher power 
than the king. In compliance with its commands I have ad- 
vanced the cross thus far against the infidels ; and it would 
be treason to the standard of Christ to turn back without 
achieving my errand." 

So the trumpets were sounded ; the cross was again reared 
aloft, and the band of zealots resumed their march. As they 
passed through the streets of Cordova the people were amazed 
at beholding a hermit bearing a cross at the head of a warlike 
multitude ; but when they learnt that a miraculous victory was 
to be effected and Granada destroyed, laborers and artisans 
threw by the implements of their handicrafts and joined 
in the crusade ; while a mercenary rabble followed on with 
a view of plunder. 

A number of cavaliers of rank who lacked faith in the 
promised miracle, and dreaded the consequences of this un- 
provoked irruption into the country of the Moor, assembled 
at the bridge of the Guadalquivir and endeavored to dissuade 
the grand master from crossing. He was deaf to prayers, 
expostulations, or menaces ; his followers were enraged at 
this opposition to the cause of the faith ; they put an end to 
the parley by their clamors ; the cross was again reared and 
borne triumphantly across the bridge. 

The multitude increased as it proceeded ; by the time the 
grand master had reached Alcala la Real, which stands on a 
mountain overlooking the Vega of Granada, upwards of five 
thousand men on foot had joined his standard. 

[315] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

At Alcala came forth Alonzo Fernandez de Cordova, Lord 
of Aguilar, his brother Diego Fernandez, Marshal of Castile, 
and other cavaliers of valor and experience. Placing them- 
selves in the way of the grand master, " What madness is 
this, Don Martin ? " said they ; " the Moorish king has two 
hundred thousand foot-soldiers and five thousand horse within 
his walls : what can you and your handful of cavaliers and 
your noisy rabble do against such force ? Bethink you of the 
disasters which have befallen other Christian commanders, 
who have crossed these rocky borders with ten times your 
force. Think, too, of the mischief that will be brought upon 
this kingdom by an outrage of the kind committed by a man 
of your rank and importance, a grand master of Alcantara. 
Pause, we entreat you, while the truce is yet unbroken. Await 
within the borders the reply of the king of Granada to your 
challenge. If he agree to meet you singly, or with champions 
two or three, it will be your individual contest, and fight it 
out in God's name ; if he refuse, you may return home with 
great honor and the disgrace will fall upon the Moors." 

Several cavaliers, who had hitherto followed the grand 
master with devoted zeal, were moved by these expostulations, 
and suggested to him the policy of listening to this advice. 

" Cavaliers," said he, addressing himself to Alonzo Fer- 
nandez de Cordova and his companions, " I thank you for 
the counsel you have so kindly bestowed upon me, and if I 
were merely in pursuit of individual glory I might be swayed 
by it. But I am engaged to achieve a great triumph of the 
faith, which God is to effect by miracle through my means. 
As to you, cavaliers," turning to those of his followers who 
had wavered, " if your hearts fail you, or you repent of hav- 
ing put your hands to this good work, return, in God's name, 



THE CRUSADE 

and my blessing go with you. For myself, though I have 
none to stand by me but this holy hermit, yet will I assuredly 
proceed ; until I have planted this sacred standard on the 
walls of Granada, or perished in the attempt." 

'" Don Martin Yaiiez de Barbudo," replied the cavaliers, 
" we are not men to turn our backs upon our commander, 
however rash his enterprise. We spoke but in caution. Lead 
on, therefore, and if it be to the death, be assured to the 
death we will follow thee." 

By this time the common soldiers became impatient. " For- 
ward ! forward ! " shouted they. " Forward in the cause of 
faith ! " So the grand master gave signal, the hermit again 
reared the cross aloft, and they poured down a defile of the 
mountain, with solemn chants of triumph. 

That night they encamped at the river of Azores, and the 
next morning, which was Sunday, crossed the borders. Their 
first pause was at an atalaya or solitary tower, built upon a 
rock ; a frontier post to keep a watch upon the border, and 
give notice of invasion. It was thence called El Torre del 
Espi'a (the Tower of the Spy). The grand master halted 
before it and summoned its petty garrison to surrender. He 
was answered by a shower of stones and arrows, which wounded 
him in the hand and killed three of his men. 

"How is this, father.?" said he to the hermit; "you 
assured me that not one of my followers would be slain! " 

"True, my son; but I meant in the great battle of the 
infidel king ; what need is there of miracle to aid in the 
capture of a petty tower.?" 

The grand master was satisfied. He ordered wood to be 
piled against the door of the tower to burn it down. In the 
meantime provisions were unloaded from the sumpter-mules, 

[317] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

and the crusaders, withdrawing beyond bow-shot, sat down 
on the grass to a repast to strengthen them for the arduous 
day's work before them. While thus engaged, they were 
startled by the sudden appearance of a great Moorish host. 
The atalayas had given the alarm by fire and smoke from 
the mountain tops of "an enemy across the border," and the 
king of Granada had sallied forth with a great force to the 
encounter. 

The crusaders, nearly taken by surprise, flew to arms and 
prepared for battle. The grand master ordered his three 
hundred horsemen to dismount and fight on foot in support 
of the infantry. The Moors, however, charged so suddenly 
that they separated the cavaliers from the foot-soldiers and 
prevented their uniting. The grand master gave the old war 
cry, "Santiago! Santiago! and close Spain!" He and his 
knights breasted the fury of the battle, but were surrounded 
by a countless host and assailed with arrows, stones, darts, 
and arquebuses. Still they fought fearlessly, and made pro- 
digious slaughter. The hermit mingled in the hottest of the 
fight. In one hand he bore the cross, in the other he brand- 
ished a sword, with which he dealt about him like a maniac, 
slaying several of the enemy, until he sank to the ground 
covered with wounds. The grand master saw him fall, and 
saw too late the fallacy of his prophecies. Despair, however, 
only made him fight the more fiercely, until he also fell 
overpowered by numbers. His devoted cavaliers emulated 
his holy zeal. Not one turned his back nor asked for mercy ; 
all fought until they fell. As to the foot-soldiers, many were 
killed, many taken prisoners ; the residue escaped to Alcala 
la Real. When the Moors came to strip the slain, the wounds 
of the cavaliers were all found to be in front. 

[318] 



THE CRUSADE 

Such was the catastrophe of this fanatic enterprise. The 
Moors vaunted it as a decisive proof of the superior sanctity 
of their faith, and extolled their king to the skies when he 
returned in triumph to Granada. 

As it was satisfactorily shown that this crusade was the 
enterprise of an individual, and contrary to the express orders 
of the king of Castile, the peace of the two kingdoms was 
not interrupted. Nay, the Moors evinced a feeling of respect 
for the valor of the unfortunate grand master, and readily 
gave up his body to Don Alonzo Fernandez de Cordova, 
who came from Alcala to seek it. The Christians of the 
frontier united in paying the last sad honors to his memory. 
His body was placed upon a bier, covered with the pennon 
of the Order of Alcantara ; and the broken cross, the emblem 
of his confident hopes and fatal disappointment, was borne 
before it. In this way his remains were carried back in 
funeral procession, through the mountain tract which he had 
traversed so resolutely. Wherever it passed, through a town 
or village, the populace followed, with tears and lamentations, 
bewailing him as a valiant knight and a martyr to the faith. 
His body was interred in the chapel of the convent of Santa 
Maria de Almocovara, and on his sepulchre may still be 
seen engraven in quaint and antique Spanish the following 
testimonial to his bravery : 

"HERE LIES ONE WHOSE HEART NEVER KNEW FEAR" 
(Aqui yaz aquel que par neua cosa nunca eve pavor en seu corazon) 



[319] 



^ShSUj: 



^ItS^'"^'""'^ 




SPANISH ROMANCE 



N THE latter part of my sojourn in the Alhambra, I made 
frequent descents into the Jesuits' Library of the Univer- 
sity ; and rehshed more and more the old Spanish chron- 
icles, which I found there bound in parchment. I delight in 
those quaint histories which treat of the times when the Mos- 
lems maintained a foothold in the Peninsula. With all their 
bigotry and occasional intolerance, they are full of noble acts 
and generous sentiments, and have a high, spicy, Oriental 
flavor, not to be found in other records of the times, which 
were merely European. In fact, Spain, even at the present 
day, is a country apart ; severed in history, habits, manners, 
and modes of thinking, from all the rest of Europe. It is a 
romantic country ; but its romance has none of the sentimen- 
tality of modern European romance ; it is chiefly derived 
from the brilliant regions of the Itast, and from the high- 
minded school of Saracenic chivalry. 

[320] 



SPANISH ROMANCE 

The Arab invasion and conquest brought a higher civiHza- 
tion, and a nobler style of thinking, into Gothic Spain, The 
Arabs were a quick-witted, sagacious, proud-spirited, and 
poetical people, and were imbued with Oriental science and 
literature. Wherever they established a seat of power, it 
became a rallying-place for the learned and ingenious ; and 
they softened and refined the people whom they conquered. 
By degrees, occupancy seemed to give them an hereditary 
right to their foothold in the land ; they ceased to be looked 
upon as invaders, and were regarded as rival neighbors. The 
Peninsula, broken up into a variety of states, both Christian 
and Moslem, became, for centuries, a great campaigning- 
ground, where the art of war seemed to be the principal 
business of man, and was carried to the highest pitch of 
romantic chivalry. The original ground of hostility, a differ- 
ence of faith, gradually lost its rancor. Neighboring states, 
of opposite creeds, were occasionally linked together in alli- 
ances, offensive and defensive ; so that the cross and cres- 
cent were to be seen side by side, fighting against some 
common enemy. In times of peace, too, the noble youth of 
either faith resorted to the same cities, Christian or Moslem, 
to school themselves in military science. Even in the tem- 
porary truces of sanguinary wars, the warriors who had re- 
cently striven together in the deadly conflicts of the field, laid 
aside their animosity, met at tournaments, jousts, and other 
military festivities, and exchanged the courtesies of gentle 
and generous spirits. Thus the opposite races became fre- 
quently mingled together in peaceful intercourse, or if any 
rivalry took place, it was in those high courtesies and nobler 
acts, which bespeak the accomplished cavalier. Warriors, of 
opposite creeds, became ambitious of transcending each other 

[321 ] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

in magnanimity as well as valor. Indeed, the chivalric vir- 
tues were refined upon to a degree sometimes fastidious and 
constrained, but at other times inexpressibly noble and affect- 
ing. The annals of the times teem with illustrious instances 
of high-wrought courtesy, romantic generosity, lofty disinter- 
estedness, and punctilious honor, that warm the very soul to 
read them. These have furnished themes for national plays 
and poems, or have been celebrated in those all-pervading 
ballads, which are as the life-breath of the people, and thus 
have continued to exercise an influence on the national char- 
acter, which centuries of vicissitude and decline have not 
been able to destroy ; so that, with all their faults, and they 
are many, the Spaniards, even at the present day, are, on 
many points, the most high-minded and proud-spirited people 
of Europe. It is true, the romance of feeling derived from 
the sources I have mentioned, has, like all other romance, 
its affectations and extremes. It renders the Spaniard at 
times pompous and grandiloquent ; prone to carry the puii- 
donor, or point of honor, beyond the bounds of sober sense 
and sound morality ; disposed, in the midst of poverty, to 
affect the grande caballcTo, and to look down with sover- 
eign disdain upon " arts mechanical," and all the gainful pur- 
suits of plebeian life ; but this very inflation of spirit, while it 
fills his brain with vapors, lifts him above a thousand mean- 
nesses ; and though it often keeps him in indigence, ever 
protects him from vulgarity. 

In the present day, when popular literature is running into 
the low levels of life, and luxuriating on the vices and follies 
of mankind ; and when the universal pursuit of gain is tram- 
pling down the early growth of poetic feeling, and wearing 
out the verdure of the soul, I question whether it would not 

[322] 



SPANISH ROMANCE 

be of service for the reader occasionally to turn to these rec- 
ords of prouder times and loftier modes of thinking ; and to 
steep himself to the very lips in old Spanish romance. 

With these preliminary suggestions, the fruit of a morn- 
ing's reading and rumination in the old Jesuits' Library of 
the University, I will give him a legend in point, drawn forth 
from one of the venerable chronicles alluded to. 



[323] 




LEGEND OF DON MUNIO SANCHO 
DE HINOJOSA 

N THE cloisters of the ancient Benedictine convent of 
Santo Domingo, at Silos, in Castile, are the mouldering 
yet magnificent monuments of the once powerful and 
chivalrous family of Hinojosa. Among these reclines the 
marble figure of a knight, in complete armor, with the 
hands pressed together, as if in prayer. On one side of his 
tomb is sculptured in relief a band of Christian cavaliers, 
capturing a cavalcade of male and female Moors ; on the 
other side, the same cavaliers are represented kneeling be- 
fore an altar. The tomb, like most of the neighboring 
monuments, is almost in ruins, and the sculpture is nearly 
unintelligible, excepting to the keen eye of the antiquary. 
The story connected with the sepulchre, however, is still 
preserved in the old Spanish chronicles, and is to the follow- 
ing purport. 

[324] 



DON MUNIO SANCHO DE HINOJOSA 

In old times, several hundred years ago, there was a noble 
Castilian cavalier, named Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa, 
lord of a border castle, which had stood the brunt of many 
a Moorish foray. He had seventy horsemen as his household 
troops, all of the ancient Castilian proof ; stark warriors, 
hard riders, and men of iron ; with these he scoured the 
Moorish lands, and made his name terrible throughout the 
borders. His castle-hall was covered with banners, cimeters, 
and Moslem helms, the trophies of his prowess. Don Munio 
was, moreover, a keen huntsman ; and rejoiced in hounds of 
all kinds, steeds for the chase, and hawks for the towering 
sport of falconry. When not engaged in warfare his delight 
was to beat up the neighboring forests ; and scarcely ever 
did he ride forth without hound and horn, a boar-spear in 
his hand, or a hawk upon his fist, and an attendant train of 
huntsmen. 

His wife, Doiia Maria Palacin, was of a gentle and timid 
nature, little fitted to be the spouse of so hardy and adven- 
turous a knight ; and many a tear did the poor lady shed, 
when he sallied forth upon his daring enterprises, and many 
a prayer did she offer up for his safety. 

As this doughty cavalier was one day hunting, he stationed 
himself in a thicket, on the borders of a green glade of the 
forest, and dispersed his followers to rouse the game, and 
drive it toward his stand. He had not been here long, when 
a cavalcade of Moors, of both sexes, came prankling over the 
forest-lawn. They were unarmed, and magnificently dressed 
in robes of tissue and embroidery, rich shawls of India, brace- 
lets and anklets of gold, and jewels that sparkled in the sun. 

At the head of this gay cavalcade rode a youthful cavalier, 
superior to the rest in dignity and loftiness of demeanor, 

[325] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

and in splendor of attire ; beside him was a damsel, whose 
veil, blown aside by the breeze, displayed a face of surpassing 
beauty, and eyes cast down in maiden modesty, yet beaming 
with tenderness and joy. 

Don Munio thanked his stars for sending him such a 
prize, and exulted at the thought of bearing home to his wife 
the glittering spoils of these infidels. Putting his hunting- 
horn to his lips, he gave a blast that rung through the 
forest. His huntsmen came running from all quarters, and 
the astonished Moors were surrounded and made captives. 

The beautiful Moor wrung her hands in despair, and her 
female attendants uttered the most piercing cries. The 
young Moorish cavalier alone retained self-possession. He 
inquired the name of the Christian knight who commanded 
this troop of horsemen. When told that it was Don Munio 
Sancho de Hinojosa, his countenance lighted up. Approach- 
ing that cavalier, and kissing his hand, " Don Munio Sancho," 
said he, "" I have heard of your fame as a true and valiant 
knight, terrible in arms, but schooled in the noble virtues of 
chivalry. Such do I trust to find you. In me you behold 
Abadil, son of a Moorish Alcalde, I am on the way to 
celebrate my nuptials with this lady ; chance has thrown us 
in your power, but I confide in your magnanimity. Take all 
our treasure and jewels ; demand what ransom you think 
proper for our persons, but suffer us not to be insulted nor 
dishonored," 

When the good knight heard this appeal, and beheld the 
beauty of the youthful pair, his heart was touched with 
tenderness and courtesy. "God forbid," said he, "that I 
should disturb such happy nuptials. My prisoners in troth 
shall ye be, for fifteen days, and immured within my castle, 

[326] 



DON MUNIO SANCHO DE HINOJOSA 

where I claim, as conqueror, the right of celebrating your 
espousals." 

So saying, he despatched one of his fleetest horsemen in 
advance, to notify Doiia Maria Palacin of the coming of this 
bridal party ; while he and his huntsmen escorted the caval- 
cade, not as captors, but as a guard of honor. As they drew 
near to the castle, the banners were hung out, and the 
trumpets sounded from the battlements ; and on their nearer 
approach, the drawbridge was lowered, and Dona Maria 
came forth to meet them, attended by her ladies and knights, 
her pages and her minstrels. She took the young bride, 
Allifra, in her arms, kissed her with the tenderness of a 
sister, and conducted her into the castle. In the meantime, 
Don Munio sent forth missives in every direction, and had 
viands and dainties of all kinds collected from the country 
round ; and the wedding of the Moorish lovers was celebrated 
with all possible state and festivity. For fifteen days the 
castle was given up to joy and revelry. There were tiltings 
and jousts at the ring, and bull-fights, and banquets, and 
dances to the sound of minstrelsy. When the fifteen days 
were at an end, he made the bride and bridegroom mag- 
nificent presents, and conducted them and their attendants 
safely beyond the borders. Such, in old times, were the 
courtesy and generosity of a Spanish cavalier. 

Several years after this event, the king of Castile sum- 
moned his nobles to assist him in a campaign against the 
Moors. Don Munio Sancho was among the first to answer 
to the call, with seventy horsemen, all stanch and well-tried 
warriors. I lis wife, Doiia Maria, hung about his neck. "Alas, 
my lord! " exclaimed she, "how often wilt thou tempt thy 
fate, and when will thy thirst for glory be appeased ! " 



THE ALHAMBRA 

"One battle more," replied Don Munio, "one battle more, 
for the honor of Castile, and I here make a vow that, when 
this is over, I will lay by my sword, and repair with my cava- 
liers in pilgrimage to the sepulchre of our Lord at Jerusalem," 
The cavaliers all joined with him in the vow, and Dona Maria 
felt in some degree soothed in spirit ; still, she saw with a 
heavy heart the departure of her husband, and watched his 
banner with wistful eyes, until it disappeared among the trees 
of the forest. 

The king of Castile led his army to the plains of Salmanara, 
where they encountered the Moorish host, near to Ucles. 
The battle was long and bloody ; the Christians repeatedly 
wavered and were as often rallied by the energy of their 
commanders. Don Munio was covered with wounds, but 
refused to leave the field. The Christians at length gave 
way, and the king was hardly pressed, and in danger of 
being captured. 

Don Munio called upon his cavaliers to follow him to the 
rescue. " Now is the time," cried he, '" to prove your loyalty. 
Fall to, like brave men ! We fight for the true faith, and if 
we lose our lives here, we gain a better life hereafter." 

Rushing with his men between the king and his pursuers, 
they checked the latter in their career, and gave time for 
their monarch to escape ; but they fell victims to their loyalty. 
They all fought to the last gasp. Don Munio was singled 
out by a powerful Moorish knight, but having been wounded 
in the right arm, he fought to disadvantage, and was slain. 
The battle being over, the Moor paused to possess himself 
of the spoils of this redoubtable Christian warrior. When he 
unlaced the helmet, however, and beheld the countenance 
of Don Munio, he gave a great cry and smote his breast. 

[328] 



DON MUNIO SANCHO DE HINOJOSA 

"Woe is me!" cried he, "I have slain my benefactor! 
The flower of knightly virtue I the most magnanimous of 
cavaliers ! " 

While the battle had been raging on the plain of Salmanara, 
Dofia Maria Palacin remained in her castle, a prey to the 
keenest anxiety. Her eyes were ever fixed on the road that 
led from the country of the Moors, and often she asked the 
watchman of the tower, " What seest thou ? " 

One evening, at the shadowy hour of twilight, the warden 
sounded his horn. " I see," cried he, " a numerous train 
winding up the valley. There are mingled Moors and Chris- 
tians. The banner of my lord is in the advance. Joyful tid- 
ings ! " exclaimed the old seneschal; "my lord returns in 
triumph, and brings captives ! " Then the castle. courts rang 
with shouts of joy; and the standard was displayed, and the 
trumpets were sounded, and the drawbridge was lowered, and 
Dona Maria went forth with her ladies, and her knights, and 
her pages, and her minstrels, to welcome her lord from the 
wars. But as the train drew nigh, she beheld a sumptuous 
bier, covered with black velvet, and on it lay a warrior, as if 
taking his repose : he lay in his armor, with his helmet on 
his head, and his sword in his hand, as one who had never 
been conquered, and around the bier were the escutcheons 
of the house of Hinojosa. 

A number of Moorish cavaliers attended the bier, with 
emblems of mourning, and with dejected countenances ; and 
their leader cast himself at the feet of Dofia Maria, and hid 
his face in his hands. She beheld in him the gallant Abadil, 
whom she had once welcomed with his bride to her castle ; 
but who now came with the body of her lord, whom he had 
unknowingly slain in battle ! 

[329] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

The sepulchre erected in the cloisters of the convent of 
Santo Domingo was achieved at the expense of the Moor 
Abadil, as a feeble testimony of his grief for the death of the 
good knight Don Munio, and his reverence for his memory. 
The tender and faithful Doiia Maria soon followed her lord 
to the tomb. One one of the stones of a small arch, beside 
his sepulchre, is the following simple inscription: " Hie jacct 
Maria Pal a c in, uxor Muiwnis Sancij Dc Fiiiojosa " — Here 
lies Maria Palacin, wife of Munio Sancho de Hinojosa, 

The legend of Don Munio Sancho does not conclude with 
his death. On the same day on which the battle took place 
on the plain of Salmanara, a chaplain of the Holy Temple at 
Jerusalem, while standing at the outer gate, beheld a train of 
Christian cavaliers advancing, as if in pilgrimage. The chap- 
lain was a native of Spain, and as the pilgrims approached, 
he knew the foremost to be Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa, 
with whom he had been well acquainted in former times. 
Hastening to the patriarch, he told him of the honorable 
rank of the pilgrims at the gate. The patriarch, therefore, 
went forth with a grand procession of priests and monks, 
and received the pilgrims with all due honor. There were 
seventy cavaliers beside their leader, — all stark and lofty 
warriors. They carried their helmets in their hands, and 
their faces were deadly pale. They greeted no one, nor 
looked either to the right or to the left, but entered the 
chapel, and kneeling before the sepulchre of our Saviour, 
performed their orisons in silence. When they had con- 
cluded, they rose as if to depart, and the patriarch and his 
attendants advanced to speak to them, but they were no more 
to be seen. Every one marvelled what could be the meaning 
of this prodigy. The patriarch carefully noted down the day, 



DON MUNIO SAN C HO DE HINOJOSA 

and sent to Castile to learn tidings of Don Munio Sancho 
de Hinojosa. He received for reply, that, on the very day 
specified, that worthy knight, with seventy of his followers, 
had been slain in battle. These, therefore, must have been 
the blessed spirits of those Christian warriors, come to fulfil 
their vow of pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 
Such was Castilian faith in the olden time, which kept its 
word, even beyond the grave. 

If any one should doubt of the miraculous apparition of 
these phantom knights, let him consult the '" History of the 
Kings of Castile and Leon," by the learned and pious Fray 
Prudencio de Sandoval, Bishop of Pamplona, where he will 
find it recorded in the " History of King Don Alonzo VI," 
on the hundred and second page. It is too precious a legend 
to be lightly abandoned to the doubter. 



[33^] 




,<r ctOHHttty* 4«»l«'<»6 iflAZK 



THE LEGEND OF THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER 




VERYBODY has heard of the Cave of St. Cyprian 
at Salamanca, where in old times judicial astronomy, 
necromancy, chiromancy, and other dark and dam- 
nable arts were secretly taught by an ancient sacristan ; or, 
as some will have it, by the Devil himself, in that disguise. 
The cave has long been shut up and the very site of it 
forgotten ; though, according to tradition, the entrance was 
somewhere about where the stone cross stands in the small 
square of the seminary of Carvajal ; and this tradition ap- 
pears in some degree corroborated by the circumstances of 
the following story. 

There was at one time a student of Salamanca, Don Vi- 
cente by name, of that merry but mendicant class, who set 
out on the road to learning without a penny in pouch for the 
journey, and who, during college vacations, beg from town 
to town and village to village to raise funds to enable them 
to pursue their studies through the ensuing term. He was 

[332] 



THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER 

now about to set forth on his wanderings ; and being some- 
what musical, slung on his back a guitar with which to amuse 
the villagers, and pay for a meal or a night's lodging. 

As he passed by the stone cross in the seminary square, 
he pulled off his hat and made a short invocation to St. 
Cyprian, for good luck ; when casting his eyes upon the 
earth, he perceived something glitter at the foot of the cross. 
On picking it up, it proved to be a seal-ring of mixed metal, 
in which gold and silver appeared to be blended. The seal 
bore as a device two triangles crossing each other, so as to 
form a star. This device is said to be a cabalistic sign, in- 
vented by King Solomon the Wise, and of mighty power 
in all cases of enchantment ; but the honest student, being 
neither sage nor conjurer, knew nothing of the matter. He 
took the ring as a present from St. Cyprian in reward of 
his prayer ; slipped it on his finger, made a bow to the cross, 
and strumming his guitar, set off merrily on his wandering. 

The life of a mendicant student in Spain is not the most 
miserable in the world, especially if he has any talent at mak- 
ing himself agreeable. He rambles at large from village to 
village, and city to city, wherever curiosity or caprice may 
conduct him. The country curates, who, for the most part, 
have been mendicant students in their time, give him shelter 
for the night, and a comfortable meal, and often enrich him 
with several qnaj-tos or half-pence in the morning. As he 
presents himself from door to door in the streets of the cities, 
he meets with no harsh rebuff, no chilling contempt, for there 
is no disgrace attending his mendacity, many of the most 
learned men in Spain having commenced their career in this 
manner ; but if, like the student in question, he is a good- 
looking varlet and a merry companion, and, above all, if he 



THE ALHAMBRA 

can play the guitar, he is sure of a hearty welcome among 
the peasants, and smiles and favors from their wives and 
daughters. 

In this way, then, did our ragged and musical son of 
learning make his way over half the kingdom ; with the fixed 
determination to visit the famous city of Granada before his 
return. Sometimes he was gathered for the night into the 
fold of some village pastor ; sometimes he was sheltered 
under the humble but hospitable roof of the peasant. Seated 
at the cottage-door with his guitar, he delighted the simple 
folk with his ditties ; or striking up ?i fandango or bolero, set 
the brown country lads and lasses dancing in the mellow twi- 
light. In the morning he departed with kind words from host 
and hostess, and kind looks and, peradventure, a squeeze of 
the hand from the daughter. 

At length he arrived at the great object of his musical 
vagabondizing, the far-famed city of Granada, and hailed with 
wonder and delight its Moorish towers, its lovely vega, and 
its snowy mountains glistening through a summer atmosphere. 
It is needless to say with what eager curiosity he entered its 
gates and wandered through its streets, and gazed upon its 
Oriental monuments. Every female face peering through a 
window or beaming from a balcony was to him a Zorayda or 
a Zelinda, nor could he meet a stately dame on the Alameda 
but he was ready to fancy her a Moorish princess, and to 
spread his student's robe beneath her feet. 

His musical talent, his happy humor, his youth, and his 
good looks won him a universal welcome in spite of his ragged 
robes, and for several days he led a gay life in the old Moorish 
capital and its environs. One of his occasional haunts was 
the fountain of Avellanos, in the valley of Darro. It is one 

[334] 



THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER 

of the popular resorts of Granada, and has been so since the 
days of the Moors ; and here the student had an opportunity 
of pursuing his studies of female beauty ; a branch of study 
to which he was a little prone. 

Here he would take his seat with his guitar, improvise love- 
ditties to admiring groups of majos and nuyas, or prompt with 
his music the ever-ready dance. He was thus engaged one 
evening when he beheld a padre of the church advancing, 
at whose approach every one touched the hat. He was evi- 
dently a man of consequence ; he certainly was a mirror of 
good if not of holy living ; robust and rosy-faced, and breath- 
ing at every pore with the warmth of the weather and the 
exercise of the walk. As he passed along he would every 
now and then draw a viaravedi out of his pocket and bestow 
it on a beggar with an air of signal beneficence. " Ah, the 
blessed father! " would be the cry; "long life to him, and 
may he soon be a bishop ! " 

To aid his steps in ascending the hill he leaned gently now 
and then on the arm of a handmaid, evidently the pet-lamb 
of this kindest of pastors. Ah, such a damsel ! Andalus from 
head to foot ; from the rose in her hair, to the fairy shoe and 
lacework stocking. But then so modest ! — so shy ! — ever, 
with downcast eyes, listening to the words of the padre ; or, 
if by chance she let flash a side glance, it was suddenly 
checked and her eyes once more cast to the ground. 

The good padre looked benignantly on the company about 
the fountain, and took his seat with some emphasis on a 
stone bench, while the handmaid hastened to bring him a 
glass of sparkling water. He sipped it deliberately and with 
a relish, tempering it with one of those spongy pieces of 
frosted eggs and sugar so dear to Spanish epicures, and on 

[335] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

returning the glass to the hand of the damsel pinched her 
cheek with infinite loving-kindness. 

" Ah, the good pastor ! " whispered the student to himself ; 
" what a happiness would it be to be gathered into his fold 
with such a pet-lamb for a companion ! " 

But no such good fare was likely to befall him. In vain 
he essayed those powers of pleasing which he had found so 
irresistible with country curates and country lasses. Never 
had he touched his guitar with such skill ; never had he 
poured forth more soul-moving ditties, but he had no longer 
a country curate or country lass to deal with. The worthy 
priest evidently did not relish music, and the modest damsel 
never raised her eyes from the ground. They remained but 
a short time at the fountain ; the good padre hastened their 
return to Granada. The damsel gave the student one shy 
glance in retiring ; but it plucked the heart out of his bosom ! 

He inquired about them after they had gone. Padre Tomas 
was one of the saints of Granada, a model of regularity ; 
punctual in his hour of rising ; his hour of taking a paseo for 
an appetite ; his hours of eating ; his hour of taking his siesta ; 
his hour of playing his game of trcsillo, of an evening, with 
some of the dames of the cathedral circle ; his hour of supping, 
and his hour of retiring to rest, to gather fresh strength for 
another day's round of similar duties. He had an easy sleek 
mule for his riding ; a matronly housekeeper skilled in pre- 
paring tid-bits for his table ; and the pet-lamb, to smooth his 
pillow at night and bring him his chocolate in the morning. 

Adieu now to the gay, thoughtless life of the student ; the 
side glance of a bright eye had been the undoing of him. 
Day and night he could not get the image of this most 
modest damsel out of his mind. He sought the mansion of 



THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER 

the padre. Alas ! it was above the class of houses accessible 
to a strolling student like himself. The worthy padre had no 
sympathy with him ; he had never been estiidiante sopista, 
obliged to sing for his supper. He blockaded the house 
by day, catching a glance of the damsel now and then as 
she appeared at a casement ; but these glances only fed his 
flame without encouraging his hope. He serenaded her bal- 
cony at night, and at one time was flattered by the appear- 
ance of something white at a window. Alas, it was only the 
nightcap of the padre. 

Never was lover more devoted ; never damsel more shy ; 
the poor student was reduced to despair. At length arrived 
the eve of St. John, when the lower classes of Granada swarm 
into the country, dance away the afternoon, and pass mid- 
summer's night on the banks of the Darro and the Xenil, 
Happy are they who on this eventful night can wash their 
faces in those waters just as the cathedral bell tells midnight, 
for at that precise moment they have a beautifying power. 
The student, having nothing to do, suffered himself to be 
carried away by the holiday-seeking throng until he found 
himself in the narrow valley of the Darro, below the lofty 
hill and ruddy towers of the Alhambra. The dry bed of the 
river ; the rocks which border it ; the terraced gardens 
which overhang it, were alive with variegated groups, danc- 
ing under the vines and fig-trees to the sound of the guitar 
and castanets. 

The student remained for some time in doleful dumps, 
leaning against one of the huge misshapen stone pomegran- 
ates which adorn the ends of the little bridge over the Darro. 
He cast a wistful glance upon the merry scene, where every ' 
cavalier had his dame ; or, to speak more appropriately, every 

[337] 



THE AL HAM BRA 

Jack his Jill ; sighed at his own solitary state, a victim to the 
black eye of the most unapproachable of damsels, and repined 
at his ragged garb, which seemed to shut the gate of hope 
against him. 

By degrees his attention was attracted to a neighbor equally 
solitary with himself. This was a tall soldier, of a stern aspect 
and grizzled beard, who seemed posted as a sentry at the 
opposite pomegranate. His face was bronzed by time ; he 
was arrayed in ancient Spanish armor, with buckler and 
lance, and stood immovable as a statue. What surprised the 
student was, that though thus strangely equipped, he was 
totally unnoticed by the passing throng, albeit that many 
almost brushed against him. 

"This is a city of old time peculiarities," thought the 
student, " and doubtless this is one of them with which the 
inhabitants are too familiar to be surprised." His own curi- 
osity, however, was awakened, and being of a social disposition, 
he accosted the soldier. 

" A rare old suit of armor that which you wear, comrade. 
May I ask what corps you belong to .? " 

The soldier gasped out a reply from a pair of jaws which 
seemed to have rusted on their hinges. 

" The royal guard of Ferdinand and Isabella." 

" Santa Maria ! Why, it is three centuries since that corps 
was in service." 

" And for three centuries have I been mounting guard. 
Now I trust my tour of duty draws to a close. Dost thou 
desire fortune } " 

The student held up his tattered cloak in reply. 

" I understand thee. If thou hast faith and courage, follow 
me, and thy fortune is made." 

[338] 



THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER 

" Softly, comrade, to follow thee would require small cour- 
age in one who has nothing to lose but life and an old guitar, 
neither of much value ; but my faith is of a different matter, 
and not to be put in temptation. If it be any criminal act by 
which I am to mend my fortune, think not my ragged coat 
will make me undertake it." 

The soldier turned on him a look of high displeasure. " My 
sword," said he, " has never been drawn but in the cause of 
the faith and the throne. I am a Cristiano vicjo ; trust in 
me and fear no evil." 

The student followed him wondering. He observed that 
no one heeded their conversation, and that the soldier made 
his way through the various groups of idlers unnoticed, as if 
invisible. 

Crossing the bridge, the soldier led the way by a narrow 
and steep path past a Moorish mill and aqueduct, and up the 
ravine which separates the domains of the Generalife from 
those of the Alhambra. The last ray of the sun shone upon 
the red battlements of the latter, which beetled far above ; 
and the convent bells were proclaiming the festival of the en- 
suing day. The ravine was overshadowed by fig-trees, vines, 
and myrtles, and the outer towers and walls of the fortress. 
It was dark and lonely, and the twilight-loving bats began to 
flit about. At length the soldier halted at a remote and ruined 
tower, apparently intended to guard a Moorish aqueduct. He 
struck the foundation with the but-end of his spear. A rum- 
bling sound was heard, and the solid stones yawned apart, 
leaving an opening as wide as a door. 

" Enter in the name of the Holy Trinity," said the soldier, 
"and fear nothing." The student's heart quaked, but he made 
the sign of the cross, muttered his Ave Maria, and followed 

[339] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

his mysterious guide into a deep vault cut out of the sohd 
rock under the tower, and covered with Arabic inscriptions. 
The soldier pointed to a stone seat hewn along one side of 
the vault. "' Behold," said he, " my couch for three hundred 
years." The bewildered student tried to force a joke. " By 
the blessed St. Anthony," said he, " but you mu^t have slept 
soundly, considering the hardness of your couch." 

" On the contrary, sleep has been a stranger to these eyes ; 
incessant watchfulness has been my doom. Listen to my lot. 
I was one of the royal guards of Ferdinand and Isabella ; but 
was taken prisoner by the Moors in one of their sorties, and 
confined a captive in this tower. When preparations were 
made to surrender the fortress to the Christian sovereigns, I 
was prevailed upon by an Alfaqui, a Moorish priest, to aid 
him in secreting some of the treasures of Boabdil in this 
vault. I was justly punished for my fault. The Alfaqui was 
an African necromancer, and by his infernal arts, cast a spell 
upon me — to guard his treasures. Something must have 
happened to him, for he never returned, and here have I re- 
mained ever since, buried alive. Years and years have rolled 
away ; earthquakes have shaken this hill ; I have heard stone 
by stone of the tower above tumbling to the ground, in the 
natural operation of time ; but the spell-bound walls of this 
vault set both time and earthquakes at defiance. 

" Once every hundred years, on the festival of St. John, 
the enchantment ceases to have thorough sway ; I am per- 
mitted to go forth and post myself upon the bridge of the 
Darro, where you met me, waiting until some one shall arrive 
who may have power to break this magic spell. I have hith- 
erto mounted guard there in vain. I walk as in a cloud, 
concealed from mortal sight. You are the first to accost 

[340] 



THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER 

me for now three hundred years. I behold the reason, I see 
on your finger the seal-ring of Solomon the Wise, which 
is proof against all enchantment. With you it remains to 
deliver me from this awful dungeon, or to leave me to keep 
guard here for another hundred years." 

The student listened to this tale in mute wonderment. 
He had heard many tales of treasures shut up under strong 
enchantment in the vaults of the Alhambra, but had treated 
them as fables. He now felt the value of the seal-ring, which 
had, in a manner, been given to him by St. Cyprian. Still, 
though armed by so potent a talisman, it was an awful thing 
to find himself tetc-a-tctc in such a place with an enchanted 
soldier, who, according to the laws of nature, ought to have 
been quietly in his grave for nearly three centuries. 

A personage of this kind, however, was quite out of the 
ordinary run, and not to be trifled with, and he assured him 
he might rely upon his friendship and good-will to do every- 
thing in his power for his deliverance. 

" I trust to a motive more powerful than friendship," said 
the soldier. 

He pointed to a ponderous iron coffer, secured by locks 
inscribed with Arabic characters. " That coffer," said he, 
" contains countless treasure in gold and jewels and precious 
stones. Break the magic spell by which I am enthralled, and 
one half of this treasure shall be thine." 

" But how am I to do it .'' " 

" The aid of a Christian priest and a Christian maid is nec- 
essary. The priest to exorcise the powers of darkness ; the 
damsel to touch this chest with the seal of Solomon. This 
must be done at night. But have a care. This is solemn 
work, and not to be effected by the carnal-minded. The 

[341] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

priest must be a Cristiano vicjo, a model of sanctity ; and 
must mortify the flesh, before he comes here, by a rigorous 
fast of four-and-twenty hours : and as to the maiden, she 
must be above reproach, and proof against temptation. Linger 
not in finding such aid. In three days my furlough is at an 
end ; if not delivered before midnight of the third, I shall 
have to mount guard for another century." 

" Fear not," said the student, " I have in my eye the very 
priest and damsel you describe ; but how am I to regain 
admission to this tower .■* " 

" The seal of Solomon will open the way for thee." 

The student issued forth from the tower much more gayly 
than he had entered. The wall closed behind him, and re- 
mained solid as before. 

The next morning he repaired boldly to the mansion of 
the priest, no longer a poor strolling student, thrumming 
his way with a guitar ; but an ambassador from the shadowy 
world, with enchanted treasures to bestow. No particulars 
are told of his negotiation, excepting that the zeal of the 
worthy priest was easily kindled at the idea of rescuing an 
old soldier of the faith and a strong-box of King Chico from 
the very clutches of Satan ; and then what alms might be 
dispensed, what churches built, and how many poor relatives 
enriched with the Moorish treasure ! 

As to the immaculate handmaid, she was ready to lend 
her hand, which was all that was required, to the pious work ; 
and if a shy glance now and then might be believed, the 
ambassador began to find favor in her modest eyes. 

The greatest difficulty, however, was the fast to which the 
good padre had to subject himself. Twice he attempted it, 
and twice the flesh was too strong for the spirit. It was 

[342] 



THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER 

only on the third day that he was enabled to withstand the 
temptations of the cupboard ; but it was still a question 
whether he would hold out until the spell was broken. 

At a late hour of the night the party groped their way up 
the ravine by the light of a lantern, and bearing a basket 
with provisions for exorcising the demon of hunger so soon 
as the other demons should be laid in the Red Sea. 

The seal of Solomon opened their way into the tower. 
They found the soldier seated on the enchanted strong-box, 
awaiting their arrival. The exorcism was performed in due 
style. The damsel advanced and touched the locks of the 
coffer with the seal of Solomon. The lid flew open ; and 
such treasures of gold and jewels and precious stones as 
flashed upon the eye ! 

" Here 's cut and come again ! " cried the student, exult- 
ingly, as he proceeded to cram his pockets. 

" Fairly and softly," exclaimed the soldier. " Let us get 
the coffer out entire, and then divide." 

They accordingly went to work with might and main ; but 
it was a difficult task ; the chest was enormously heavy, and 
had been imbedded there for centuries. While they were 
thus employed the good dominie drew on one side and made 
a vigorous onslaught on the basket, by way of exorcising the 
demon of hunger which was raging in his entrails. In a little 
while a fat capon was devoured, and washed down by a deep 
potation of Valdepenas ; and, by way of grace after meat, he 
gave a kind-hearted kiss to the pet-lamb who waited on him. 
It was quietly done in a corner, but the tell-tale walls babbled 
it forth as if in triumph. Never was chaste salute more awful 
in its effects. At the sound the soldier gave a great cry of 
despair ; the coffer, which was half raised, fell back in its 

[343] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

place and was locked once more. Priest, student, and damsel 
found themselves outside of the tower, the wall of which 
closed with a thundering jar. Alas ! the good padre had 
broken his fast too soon ! 

When recovered from his surprise, the student would have 
re-entered the tower, but learnt to his dismay that the damsel, 
in her fright, had let fall the seal of Solomon ; it remained 
within the vault. 

In a word, the cathedral bell tolled midnight; the spell 
was renewed ; the soldier was doomed to mount guard for 
another hundred years, and there he and the treasure remain 
to this day — and all because the kind-hearted padre kissed 
his handmaid. " Ah, father ! father ! " said the student, 
shaking his head ruefully, as they returned down the ravine, 
"' I fear there was less of the saint than the sinner in that 
kiss ! " 

Thus ends the legend as far as it has been authenticated. 
There is a tradition, however, that the student had brought 
off treasure enough in his pocket to set him up in the world ; 
that he prospered in his affairs, that the worthy padre gave 
him the pet-lamb in marriage, by way of amends for the 
blunder in the vault ; that the immaculate damsel proved a 
pattern for wives as she had been for handmaids. 

The story of the enchanted soldier remains one of the 
popular traditions of Granada, though told in a variety of 
ways ; the common people affirm that he still mounts guard 
on midsummer eve, beside the gigantic stone pomegranate 
on the bridge of the Darro ; but remains invisible excepting 
to such lucky mortal as may possess the seal of Solomon. 



[344] 




THE AUTHOR'S FAREWELL TO GRANADA 




'Y SERENE and happy reign in the Alhambra 
was suddenly brought to a close by letters which 
reached me, while indulging in Oriental luxury 
in the cool hall of the baths, summoning me away from my 
Moslem elysium, to mingle once more in the bustle and busi- 
ness of the dusty world. How was I to encounter its toils 
and turmoils, after such a life of repose and reverie ! How 
was I to endure its commonplace, after the poetry of the 
Alhambra ! 

But little preparation was necessary for my departure. A 
twQ-wheeled vehicle, called a tartaua, very much resembling 
a covered cart, was to be the travelling equipage of a young 
Englishman and myself through Murcia, to Alicant and 
Valencia, on our way to France ; and a long-limbed varlet, 

[345] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

who had been a contrabandista, and, for aught I knew, a 
robber, was to be our guide and guard. The preparations 
were soon made, but the departure was the difficulty. Day 
after day was it postponed ; day after day was spent in hn- 
gering about my favorite haunts, and day after day they 
appeared more dehghtful in my eyes. 

The social and domestic little world also, in which I had 
been moving, had become singularly endeared to me ; and 
the concern evinced by them at my intended departure, con- 
vinced me that my kind feelings were reciprocated. Indeed, 
when at length the day arrived, I did not dare venture upon 
a leave-taking at the good Dame Antonia's ; I saw the soft 
heart of little Dolores, at least, was brimful and ready for an 
overflow. So I bade a silent adieu to the palace and its in- 
mates, and descended into the city as if intending to return. 
There, however, the tartana and the guide were ready ; 
so, after taking a noon-day's repast with my fellow-traveller 
at the posado, I set out with him on our journey. 

Humble was the cortege and melancholy' the departure of 
El Rey Chico the Second ! Manuel, the nephew of Tia An- 
tonia, Mateo, my officious but now disconsolate squire, and 
two or three old invalids of the Alhambra, with whom I had 
grown into gossiping companionship, had come down to see 
me off ; for it is one of the good old customs of Spain, to 
sally forth several miles to meet a coming friend, and to 
accompany him as far on his departure. Thus then we set 
out, our long-legged guard striding ahead, with his escopeta 
on his shoulder ; Manuel and Mateo on each side of the 
tartana, and the old invalids behind. 

At some little distance to the north of Granada, the road 
gradually ascends the hills ; here I alighted and walked up 

[346] 



FAREWELL TO GRANADA 

slowly with Manuel, who took this occasion to confide to me 
the secret of his heart and of all those tender concerns be- 
tween himself and Dolores, with which I had been already 
informed by the all-knowing and all-revealing Mateo Ximenes. 
His doctor's diploma had prepared the way for their union, 
and, if he could get the post of Medico of the fortress, his 
happiness would be complete ! I congratulated him on the 
judgment and good taste he had shown in his choice of a 
helpmate ; and invoked all possible felicity on their union. 

It was indeed a sorrowful parting when I took leave of 
these good people and saw them slowly descend the hills ; 
now and then turning round to wave me a last adieu. Manuel, 
it is true, had cheerful prospects to console him, but poor 
Mateo seemed perfectly cast down. It was to him a grievous 
fall from the station of prime-minister and historiographer, 
to his old brown cloak and his starveling mystery of ribbon- 
weaving ; and the poor devil, notwithstanding his occasional 
officiousness, had, somehow, or other, acquired a stronger 
hold on my sympathies than I was aware of. It would have 
really been a consolation in parting, could I have anticipated 
the good fortune in store for him, and to which I had con- 
tributed ; for the importance I had appeared to give to his 
tales and gossip and local knowledge, and the frequent com- 
panionship in which I had indulged him in the course of my 
strolls, had elevated his idea of his own qualifications and 
opened a new career to him ; and the son of the Alhambra 
has since become its regular and well-paid cicerone ; inso- 
much that I am told he has never been obliged to resume 
the ragged old brown cloak in which I first found him. 

Towards sunset I came to where the road wound into the 
mountains, and here I paused to take a last look at Granada. 

[347] 



THE ALHAMBRA 



I 



The hill on which I stood commanded a glorious view of 
the city, the Vega, and the surrounding mountains. It was 
at an opposite point of the compass from La Cuesta de las 
Lagrimas (the Hill of Tears) noted for the " last sigh of 
the Moor." I now could realize something of the feelings 
of poor Boabdil when he bade adieu to the paradise he was 
leaving behind, and beheld before him a rugged and sterile 
road conducting him to exile. 

The setting sun as usual shed a melancholy effulgence on 
the ruddy towers of the Alhambra. I could faintly discern 
the balconied window of the Tower of Comares, where I had 
indulged in so many delightful reveries. The bosky groves 
and gardens about the city were richly gilded with the sun- 
shine, the purple haze of a summer evening was gathering 
over the Vega ; everything was lovely, but tenderly and sadly 
so, to my parting gaze. 

"' I Vk'ill hasten from this prospect," thought I, " before the 
sun is set. I will carry away a recollection of it clothed in 
all its beauty." 

With these thoughts I pursued my way among the moun- 
tains. A little farther and Granada, the Vega, and the 
Alhambra were shut from my view ; and thus ended one of 
the pleasantest dreams of a life, which the reader perhaps 
may think has been but too much made up of dreams. 



[348] 



NOTES 



THE JOURNEY 

Page 3. The author's traveling companion was Prince Dolgorouki, 
who was the Russian minister at the court of Persia when the 
revised edition of "The Alhambra" was pubHshed in 1851. 

Page 6. Gibraltar is derived from the Arabic and means " the moun- 
tain of Tarik." Tarik was the commander of the Moorish and Berber 
forces who overthrew King Roderick and opened the country to 
the Moors. 

Page 8. From the first of the eighth until the end of the fifteenth 
century southern Spain was the scene of an almost constant conflict 
for supremacy between the Moslems, or Mohammedans, and the 
Christians. In 711 an invading force of Arabs and Berbers crossed 
over from northern Africa and attacked the Spaniards at the Guada- 
lete River, where they fought the greatest battle in early Spanish his- 
tory. The king of Spain, Roderick, was killed with the flower of 
his army. This opened the way for the easy conquest of the country. 
At once hordes of Mohammedan immigrants poured in and within 
a few years gained control of nearly all the territory south of the 
Pyrenees. Next they crossed into France, hoping to extend their 
conquest over much of western Europe, but after some few successes 
they were repulsed in a hard-fought battle near Tours in 732. This 
ended their attempts to extend their conquest beyond Spain. During 
the next five centuries they conducted, with varied success, a pictur- 
esque warfare with the kingdoms which then made up the Spanish 
peninsula. By 1250 they had been forced back into the south of 
Spain, where for two centuries more they held control of the moun- 
tainous kingdom of Granada, from which they were finally driven 
in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella. 

This Mohammedan invasion influenced Spain in a way that made 
its history peculiarly different from that of any of the other Euro- 
pean states. The Moors, as the Mohammedans of the country were 

[349] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

called, developed their civilization to its highest level at a time when 
the rest of Europe was passing through one of its darkest periods. 
Agriculture, commerce, science, and the arts flourished under the 
patronage of the Moors and the other inhabitants of the country, 
who had become more or less amalgamated into a single nation. 
Universities were filled with thousands of students. The cities were 
beautified until they were a delight to behold. In the city of Cordova 
alone, with its half million inhabitants, were three thousand mosques, 
a number of stately palaces, three hundred public baths, and a famous 
university. The city was probably at that time without an equal 
anywhere in the world. 

The magnificent palace of the Alhambra (so called from the Arabic 
word al-ha/fira'ti, " red," on account of the coral tint of the plaster 
on its walls) was built for the Moorish kings of Granada, and is a 
worthy example of the culture of the period. It was the greatest 
achievement of Arabic architecture. 

For an admirable account of the conflict that prevailed between 
the Christians and the Mohammedans during these times, one should 
consult Irving's " Conquest of Granada." 
Page id. Sanclio : Sancho Panza was the servant of Don Quixote, the 
story of whose exploits is the most famous romance in Spanish liter- 
ature. It was written by Cervantes (first published in Madrid, 1605), 
and represents a weak-minded country gentleman of inflammable 
temperament who had spent much of his time reading tales of chiv- 
alry. With his squire, Sancho Panza, he goes in quest of knightly 
adventure, of which his excited imagination finds no end. To him 
windmills become giants, solitary inns are castles, and galley slaves 
seem to be oppressed gentlemen. His ludicrous efforts to perform 
knightly service and Sancho Panza's humorous statements of the 
truthful condition of affairs have furnished rich entertainment to the 
readers of Spanish and to those also of the many languages into 
which " Don Quixote " has been translated. 

Cervantes wrote " Don Quixote " as a parody upon many of the 
absurd works of chivalry that had been published, and also as a pro- 
test against a then popular prejudice against all kinds of useful labor. 
Page i i. Alcald is a word derived from the Arabic, meaning a " castle." 

"It may be as well to note here that the alforjas are square pockets 
at each end of a long cloth about a foot and a half wide, formed by 

[350] 



NOTES 

turning up its extremities. The cloth is then thrown over the saddle, 
and the pockets hang on each side like saddlebags. It is an Arab 
invention. The bota is a leathern bag or bottle, of portly dimensions, 
with a narrow neck. It is also oriental. Hence the scriptural caution 
which perplexed me in my boyhood, not to put new wine into old 
bottles." — Irving 

Page 19. caballeroing : addressing them as gentlemen. 

Page 28. 07'isoti : prayer. 

Page 30. spatferdashes : a covering for the legs to protect the trousers 
and stockings. 

Page 31 . Don : a Spanish title meaning " Sir " or " Mr.," of somewhat 
more dignity than SeTior. 

Page 36. According to the legend, Count Julian was commander of 
Ceuta, one of the strongest Spanish forts on the north coast of 
Africa. For an insult offered to his daughter by Roderick, the 
Spanish king, Count Julian delivered his fortress to the Moors and 
entered their army. 

The Vega of Granada was a great plain over a hundred miles in 
circumference, surrounded by lofty mountains, and cultivated with 
such care that it appeared like a vast garden. 

Page 37. Gil Bias : the hero of a French romance of the same name 
by Le Sage, published in 171 5. In many ways Gil Bias is to the 
French what Don Quixote is to the Spanish. 

PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

Page 39. The Caaba, or Kaaba, is a cube-shaped, flat-roofed building 
in the center of the great mosque at Mecca, the most sacred shrine 
of the Moslems, or Mohammedans. It contains the sacred black 
stone said to have been originally a ruby that came down from 
heaven, toward which all Moslems face during their devotions. 

Page 40. royal demesne : estates under the immediate control of the 
crown. 

Page 43. Piierta de las Granadas : Gate of the Pomegranates. The 
word Gra7!ada means " Pomegranate," and on the arms of the city 
the pomegranate is inscribed. 

Zegris and the Abencerrages : two Moorish families of Granada 
famous in Spanish romance. They were supposed to have been bitter 

[351] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

enemies, struggling against each other constantly, and to have met a 
tragic destruction in the Alhambra at the hands of King Abu Hassan. 

Page 45. Mohammedanism is known as the religion of Islam, mean- 
mg entire submission to the will of God. It was founded by Mo- 
hammed in the early part of the seventh century, and is based chiefly 
upon the teachings of the Old Testament, with additions and altera- 
tions. The Bible of the Mohammedans is the Koran, and it contains 
much of the Old Testament, although Mohammed presented it as 
having come to him in the form of original revelations from the 
angel Gabriel. 

Mohammed was born at Mecca about 750 A.D., and was brought 
up in the desert. When about forty years old he spent much of his 
time in contemplation, doubtless due to the effect upon his mind of 
what he had gathered from his contact with Judaism, Christianity, 
and Arabic lore, chiefly on two journeys to Syria. He soon declared 
himself to be the subject of revelations which convinced him that 
he was the apostle and prophet of God. His first converts were 
members of his family, who were followed by a number of his friends 
until his adherents numbered about fifty. The people of Mecca in 
614 rose against him, and a part of his followers fled to Abyssinia 
for safety. His converts increased at first by small numbers, but as 
time passed, his teachings spread with growing rapidity, especially in 
Medina. In 622 the Meccans again opposed him", and he was com- 
pelled to flee from their city to Medina on the twentieth of June of 
that year. This is known as the hejira (the flight) and marks the 
beginning of the Mohammedan Era. From this time on military 
aggressiveness was combined with religious zeal, and Mohammed 
in 624 won a battle from the Meccans. The following year he was 
defeated by them in another conflict. The success of his religious 
campaign increased steadily, however, and one tribe of Arabs after 
another was converted until in 631 a rather definite Mohammedan 
Empire was established. In 632, the year in which he made his last 
pilgrimage to Mecca, he died while planning an expedition against 
the Byzantine Empire. His followers carried on their conquests 
over Syria, Persia, and into Spain, and finally captured Constanti- 
nople, extending their belief until it embraced millions of people. 

Page 48. cufic : the kind of characters used in ancient times in the 
sacred Mohammedan books. 

[352] 



NOTES 

Page 52. apocryphal : of doubtful authority. 

parterres : arrangements of flower beds of varying shapes with 
walks between. 

Page 53. " To an unpracticed eye the light relievos and fanciful ara- 
besques which cover the walls of the Alhambra appear to have been 
sculptured by the hand, with a minute and patient labor, an inex- 
haustible variety of detail, yet a general uniformity and harmony of 
design truly astonishing ; and this may especially be said of the 
vaults and cupolas, which are wrought like honeycombs, or frost- 
work, with stalactites and pendants which confound the beholder 
with the seeming intricacy of their patterns. The astonishment 
ceases, however, when it is discovered that this is all stucco-work ; 
plates of plaster of Paris, cast in moulds and skilfully joined so as 
to form patterns of every size and form. This mode of diapering 
walls with arabesques, and stuccoing the vaults with grotto-work, 
was invented in Damascus, but highly improved by the Moors in 
Morocco, to whom Saracenic architecture owes its most graceful and 
fanciful details. The process by which all this fairy tracery was pro- 
duced was ingeniously simple. The wall in its naked state was di- 
vided off by lines crossing at right angles, such as artists use in 
copying a picture ; over these were drawn a succession of intersect- 
ing segments of circles. By the aid of these the artists could work 
with celerity and certainty, and from the mere intersection of the 
plain and curved lines arose the interminable variety of patterns and 
the general uniformity of their character.^ 

" Much gilding was used in the stucco-work, especially of the cu- 
polas ; and the interstices were delicately pencilled with brilliant 
colors, such as vermilion and lapis lazuli, laid on with the whites of 
eggs. The primitive colors alone were used, says Ford, by the 
Egyptians, Greeks, and Arabs, in the early period of art ; and they 
prevail in the Alhambra whenever the artist has been Arabic or 
Moorish. It is remarkable how much of their original brilliancy 
remains after the lapse of several centuries. 

" The lower part of the walls in the saloons, to the height of several 
feet, is incrusted with glazed tiles, joined like the plates of stucco- 
work, so as to form various patterns. On some of them are emblaz- 
oned the escutcheons of the Moslem kings, traversed with a band 
1 See Urquhart, Pillars of Hercules, Book III, chap. viii. 

[353] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

and motto. These glazed tiles {azulejos in Spanish, az-zulaj in 
Arabic) are of Oriental origin ; their coolness, cleanliness, and free- 
dom from vermin render them admirably fitted in sultry climates for 
paving halls and fountains, incrusting bathing-rooms, and lining the 
walls of chambers. Ford is inclined to give them great antiquity. 
From their prevailing colors, sapphire and blue, he deduces that they 
may have formed the kind of pavements alluded to in the sacred 
Scriptures : " There was under his feet as it were a paved work of 
a sapphire stone" (Exod. xxiv, lo); and again, "Behold I will lay 
thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires " 
(Isa. liv, 1 1). 

" These glazed or porcelain tiles were introduced into Spain at an 
early date by the Moslems. Some are to be seen among the Moor- 
ish ruins which have been there upwards of eight centuries. Manu- 
factures of them still exist in the Peninsula, and they are much used 
in the best Spanish houses, especially in the southern provinces, for 
paving and lining the summer apartments. 

" The Spaniards introduced them into the Netherlands when they 
had possession of that country. The people of Holland adopted 
them with avidity, as wonderfully suited to their passion for house- 
hold cleanliness ; and thus these Oriental inventions have come to 
be commonly known as Dutch tiles." — Irving 

IMPORTANT NEGOTIATIONS — THE AUTHOR SUCCEEDS 
TO THE THRONE OF BOABDIL 

Page 54. Boabdil was the last of the Moorish kings to rule over Gra- 
nada. It was he who surrendered the Alhambra to Ferdinand and 
Isabella in 1492. 

Page 55. bhiotiac : a military term meaning to pass the night in the 
open air, without encamping, ready for action. Here it means to 
sleep without a regular bed. 

Page 56. perquisites : something received in addition to regular wages ; 
fees ; tips. 

Page 58. The Roman Catholic Church prohibits marriage between 
persons who are related within certain degrees. This prohibition 
may in some cases be removed by the church authorities who, by 
virtue of their office, have been given power by the Pope to grant 
dispensations. 

[354] 



NOTES 

INHABITANTS OF THE ALHAMBRA 

Page 64. Scheherazade : the character who relates the stories in the 
Arabian Nights. 

marker of a Jives-court : one who keeps score for a ball game 
called Fives. 

Page 65. Agamemnon and Achilles : in Greek legendary history the 
two who were most prominent in the capture of Troy. Homer's 
Iliad tells of the ten years' siege of Troy and of many of the deeds 
of these heroes. 

Page 66. quarterings : in the Middle Ages emblems or devices were 
pictured on the shields of knights, and afterwards embroidered on 
the surcoat or garment worn over the coat of mail ; from this came 
the designation " coat of arms." These devices were of practical use, 
since they identified the wearer, whose face, when in battle, was 
concealed by the visor of his helmet. 

At first every knight chose his emblem according to his fancy, 
and all sorts of animals, imaginary monsters, plants, and forms of 
many other objects were used. When possible, the symbol suggested 
the name, title, or some distinguishing quality of its bearer — a 
custom which has its counterpart among the American Indians. 

As these coats of arms became numerous, great confusion arose, 
for the same emblem was often taken by different knights. In the 
course of time it was found necessary to regulate the bearing of 
coats of arms, as they were made hereditary and descended from 
their original bearer to his heirs. 

This regulation respecting coats of arms was intrusted to heralds, 
who were officers appointed by their sovereigns, and who had vari- 
ous other duties to perform, such as to marshal processions, super- 
intend public ceremonies, bear messages of courtesy or defiance 
between princes or knights, and to take charge of tournaments, 
justs, and all other exercises of chivalry. 

An escutcheon represents an old knightly shield, with a coat of 
arms depicted upon it. 

Where a family is entitled by inheritance to bear several coats of 
arms, the escutcheon is divided into parts called quarterings, upon 
each of which the different emblems are emblazoned. 



[355] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Page 67. The reference is to the opening lines of scene vi, in Act I 
of " Macbeth." 

Duncan. This castle hath a pleasant seat ; the air 
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 
Unto our gentle senses. 

Banquo. This guest of summer, 

The temple-haunting martlet, does approve. 
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath 
Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, 
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 
The air is delicate. 

THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS 

Page 6g. spandrels : the spaces between adjoining arches. 
Page 72. Cfesce^it : the crescent, or figure of the new moon, is used for 
the symbol of Mohammedanism. 

ALHAMAR, THE FOUNDER OF THE ALHAMBRA 

Page 77. satiton : a Moslem saint or hermit. 

Page 78. The battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, one of the most famous 
in Spanish history, was fought between the Spanish and the Moors 
in 1 21 2. It was a great victory for the Spanish and marks the be- 
ginning of the decline of the Moorish Empire in Spain. 

Page 80. Cortes : assembly of the states ; the legislative body of Spain. 

YUSEF ABUL HAGIG 

Page 86. The battle of Salado was fought October 30, 1340, on the 
banks of the small river Salado. After their utter defeat in this 
battle the Moors made no further attempts to conquer Spain. 

THE MYSTERIOUS CHAMBERS 

Page 90. Pepe : this is the diminutive form of Joseph. 

Page 92. belvedere : a small structure on the top of a building open- 
ing on some attractive prospect on one or more sides. The word 
means " beautiful view." 

[356] 



NOTES 

" One of the things in which the Moorish kings interfered was 
the marriage of their nobles ; hence it came that all the senors at- 
tached to the royal person were married in the palace ; and there 
was always a chamber destined for the ceremony." — Irving 
Page ioi. Albaicin : this section is now largely inhabited by the so- 
called Gipsies, although formerly it was the seat of the Moorish 
nobility. 

PANORAMA FROM THE TOWER OF COMARES 

Page i 04. Ibn Batuta : a famous Arabian traveler and geographer, 
born at Tangier about 1377. Among the lands which he visited 
were northern and central Africa, western and central Asia, Russia, 
India, and China. His " Travels " have been translated into several 
languages. 

THE BALCONY 

Page 112. matin bell: the bell for morning prayer; the vesper bell 
is the call for evening prayer. 

THE COURT OF LIONS 

Page i 20. phantasmagoria : a series of illusive images or fancies. 
Page 122. armorial ensigns : flags bearing coats of arms. 
Te Deiim : a Christian hymn of ancient origin. 

MEMENTOS OF BOABDIL 

Page 132. The minor details of the surrender of Granada were stated 
in different ways even by eyewitnesses. Irving, in his " Conquest 
of Granada," endeavored to adjust them according to what seemed 
to be the best authorities. 

LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER 

Page i 50. ottoman : a stuffed seat without a back, or a circular seat 
for a number of people, originally used in Turkey. 

Page 156. dervise : the name of a class of religious persons among 
the Mohammedans who affect great austerity, living partly in the 
monasteries, and partly leading a solitary life. 

[357] 



THE ALHAMBRA 

Page 157. Solovwn tlie Wise: Arabic legends represent King Solo- 
mon to have had power over all sorts of evil spirits, through whom 
he obtained vast treasures that were in their keeping. For disobedi- 
ence to his commands many of these genii were inclosed in great 
bottles sealed by his seal, from which they were unable to escape. 
In his book of knowledge was recorded the charms by which he 
worked his magic spells. The Arabian Nights contains a story of 
one of these genii who was sealed in a bottle by King Solomon. 

Page i 60. juggle : to play false. 

LEGEND OF PRINCE AHMED AL KAMEL 

Page i 74. mute : one who has been deprived of speech. 

Page 176. Rabbi>i : a rabbi, literally "my master," a title applied in 
modern Jewish usage to those authorized to decide legal and reli- 
gious matters. By persons not Hebrews it is often applied to any 
one ministering to a Jewish congregation, to distinguish him from a 
Christian clergyman. 

Page i 89. black art : a name given in the Middle Ages to magic, or 
the performance of superhuman acts by the supposed aid of evil 
spirits or supernatural powers. 

Page 190. Seville is called by the Spaniards " The beautiful city of the 
Giralda." On the spire of the cathedral is a large statue of Faith, 
which turns with the wind. It is from the \erh girar, "to turn," that 
the statue and the tower get their name. 

Page 194. parts : as used here, great talents. 

Page 197. lists: the ground or field inclosed for combat between 
knights was called the lists. To " enter the lists " was to engage in 
a contest. 

Page 200. Fez : the capital of Morocco, a city of commercial impor- 
tance where many articles of fine workmanship were made. 

Page 205. pastoral reed : shepherd's pipe, a musical instrument made 
from the joint of a reed. 

LEGEND OF THE MOOR'S LEGACY 

Page 223. viyrrh^ frankincense^ storax : fragrant, aromatic gums, 
burned as incense in religious or other rites. 

[358] 



NOTES 

LEGEND OF THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES 

Page 234. sinister and dexter hatids : left and right hands, so called 

because the left is usually regarded as the unlucky, or disastrous, side 

and the right as the skillful, or dexterous, side. 
Page 235. duenna: same as duena. 
Page 236. cast the nativity : ascertaining the position of the stars at 

birth, by which it was supposed that the events of one's life could 

be foretold. This used to be practiced by astrologers. It is the same 

as casting one's horoscope. 
Page 242. Hesperian fruit : the golden apples of the garden of the 

Hesperides, supposed in mythology to be guarded by the Hesperids, 

their mother, and a dragon. 
Page 244. several: here it means " different." 
Page 248. itching palm : one is said to have an itching palm when, 

figuratively speaking, he has his hand out for money all the time. 
Page 251. bastinado : beat with a stick or cudgel, especially on the 

soles of the feet ; an Eastern punishment. 
Page 256. sally-ports : back gates or doors in the outer works of 

fortifications, reached by underground passages. 

LEGEND OF THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA 

Page 264. Antinous : a youth of much grace and beauty who was a 
page, attendant, and favorite of the Roman emperor Hadrian. 

gerfalcon : a large species of falcon or hawk, a bird with a short- 
hooked beak, strong claws, and rapid flight. It was formerly trained 
for the pursuit of other birds and game. When at rest its eyes were 
covered by a hood, which was removed when it was freed to pursue 
its quarry. 
Page 276. hypochondriac : a person afflicted with extreme melancholy. 
megrims : lowness of spirits ; whims. 

Farinelli : born at Naples, 1705; died at Bologna, Italy, 1782. 
He was a celebrated soprano, " the most remarkable singer, perhaps, 
who has ever lived " {Grove). 
Page 280. Paganini : a famous Italian violinist. 

THE VETERAN 
Page 281. carbonadoed : slashed from fighting. 

[359] 



THE ALHAMBRA 



THE GOVERNOR AND THE NOTARY 



1 



Page 284. Toledo : a sword made in the city of Toledo, Spain, where 
many weapons of great excellence were manufactured. 

GOVERNOR MANGO AND THE SO1.JIER 

Page 294. a baggage : a playful, saucy young woman ; a flirt. 

Page 298. Santiago : St. James. 

Page 308. Valdepehas and Mdlaga are wines that are highly esteemed 

in Spain. 
Page 309. spolia opima : valuable booty or pillage. In the history of 

Rome, when a Roman general killed an opposing general with his 

own hand he was said to have secured the spolia opitna^ which 

was the highest triumph that he could attain. 

CRUSADE OF THE GRAND MASTER OF ALCANTARA 

Page 313. cap-a-pie: from head to foot; in Spanish this is de pies 
a cabeza. 

LEGEND OF DON MUNIO SANCHO DE HINOJOSA 

Page 328. the sepulchre of our Lord at Jerusalem : the Holy Sepul- 
cher, in which the body of Christ lay between the time of his burial 
and resurrection. To recover this from the infidels who had cap- 
tured Jerusalem in the seventh century, was the object of the Cru- 
sades, in which many knights and others participated. Individual 
pilgrims and small bands also frequently attempted to reach the 
Holy Sepulcher. 

THE LEGEND OF THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER 

Page 332. sacristan : an officer of the church who has charge of the 
sacristy and its contents and other valuables and records. 

Page 333. The seal of Solomon : the device consists of two equilat- 
eral triangles interlaced so as to form a star and surrounded by a 
circle. According to Arab tradition, when the Most High gave Solo- 
mon the choice of blessings and he chose wisdom, there came from 
heaven a ring, on which this device was engraven. This mystic 
talisman was the arcanum of his wisdom, felicity, and grandeur ; by 

[360] 



NOTES 

this he governed and prospered. In consequence of a temporary 
lapse from virtue he lost the ring in the sea and was at once reduced 
to the 'evel of ordinary men. By penitence and prayer he made his 
pe; .' with the Deity, was permitted to find his ring again in a fish, 
and thus rccov^V/J his celestial gifts. That he might not utterly lose 
hem again, he communicated t others the secret of the marvelous 
iing. The signet of Solomon the Wise is believed by tradition to 
have held potent control over genii, demons, and enchantments. 

Page 339. Ave Maria : the first words of the Latin form of the " Hail 
Mary," a prayer of devotion in the Roman Catholic Church. 

Page 341. exorcise: to drive out by religious or magical agencies. 



[361] 



VOCABULARY 

This vocabulary is intended only to give the pronunciation of Spanish 
and other words with which the student or reader may not, be familiar, 
and to supply at the same time as a matter of convenience the definitions 
of most of the Spanish words and a few others that occur in the text of 
"' The Alhambra." In cases where Spanish and Moorish expressions occur 
but once, and are accompanied by their English equivalents, it has seemed 
unnecessary to include the translations here. 

A star (*) indicates that the first r in the word should be rolled. 

A dagger (t) indicates that th is to be pronounced like th in this. 



Abadil (ah bah deel') 

Abderahman (ab der rah'mahn) 

Abencerrages (a ben'se ray jez) 

Aben Comixa (ah'ben co mee'sha) 

Aben Hud (ah'ben hood') 

Abu Ayub (ah'boo ah yoob') 

adalides (t ah thah lee'thace) guides 

Aden (ay'den) 

Adinamar (ah dee nah mar') 

Aguilar (ah ghee lar') 

Ah, dios seiiores (ah' dyohs' \onc 

syllable] say nyo'race) 
Ahmed (ah'med) 
aigrette (ai gret') a plume or tuft of 

feathers or ge?iis 
Aira (i'rah) 

Alameda (ah lah may'dah) 
Albaicin (ahl by theen') 
Alberca (ahl ber'cah) 
albornoz( ahl bornoath') <■<'(?■ rj-(?7i;iff/,?w 

stuff; cloak 7vhich forms paii of the 

Moorish df-ess 
alcaide (al ky'day) 



Alcalade Guadaira (ahl cah lah' day 

gwah di'rah) 
Alcala la Real (ahl cah lah' lah *ray- 

ahl') 
alcalde (ahl cahl'day) gove7iior 
Alcantara (ahl cahn'tah rah) 
Alcaudete (ahl cow day'tay) 
alcazar (al cah'thar) an Arabic ivord 

meatiing a fojiifed castle 
Aldegonda (ahl day gon'dah) 
Alfaqui (al fah kee') 
alforjas (ahl for'hahs) saddlebags 
alguazil (ahl gwah theel') a constable 
Alhamar (ah lah mar') 
Ah Atar (ah lee' ah tar') 
AI Kamel (al kah'mel) 
Allah Akbar (al lah' ak'bar) 
Allifra (ah lyee'frah) 
Al Makkari (al mak kah ree') 
Almeria (ahl may ree'ah) 
Alonzo Fernandez de Cordova (ah- 

lon tho fehr nahn'dayth day cor'- 

do vah) 



[363] 



THE ALHAMBRA 



Alpuxarra (* ahl poo hah'rah) 
Andalusia (an da loo'shi a) 
Andaluz (ahn dah looth') 
Angosturas (an gos too'rahs) 
Antiquera (ahn tee kay'rah) 
Aqui yaz aquel que par neua cosa 
nunca eve pavor en seu corazon 
(ah kee' yahth' ah kel' kay par 
nay'wah co'sah noon'cah ay'vay 
pah vor' en seow co rah thon') 
Arahal (ah rah ahl') 
Archidona (ar chee do'nah) 
Armu (ar'moo) 

arrieros (* ah ryay'rohs) can-iers 
Asturian (as too'ri an) 
atalaya (ah tah lah'yah) watch-to-ii'er 
Avellanos (ah vay lyah'nohs) 
Ave Maria (ah'vay mah ree'a'h) 
Ay de mi (i'day mee') %voe is me ! 
Ayxa la Horra (ah'ee sha lah hor'ra) 

bandolero (ban do lay'ro) oiitlazv 

barranco (* bah rahn'co) fissure in 
a hill 

basquina (bahskee'nyah) upper petti- 
coat 7Vorn by Spanish 7vomcn 

bastinado (bas tin ay'do) 

belvedere (bel vay day'ray) " beauti- 
ful view " ; see notes 

bendito sea tal pan (bendee'to say'- 
ah tahr pahn') 

Beni Nasar (beh nee' nah'sar) 

Boabdil (bo ahb deel') 

bolero (bo lay'ro) a Spanish dance 
■with much movement of the arms 

bon mot (bong mo') 

bota (bo'tah) leathern bottle 

bottinas (bo tee'nahs) spatterdashes 

bragas (brah'gahs) drainers 

brasero (brah say'ro) a pan of coals 



Caaba (cah'aba) 

caballero (cah bah lyay'ro) gentleman 

Calderon (cawl'der un) 

Calle de los Gomeres (cah'lyay day 
lohs go may'race) 

Calle Real del Llano (cah'lyay 
* ray ahl' del lyah'no) 

Cammacho (cahm mah'cho) 

campina(cahmpee'nyah)yt';-;^//^//(7/« 

Campotejar (cahm po tay hahr') 

cap-a-pie(cap a pe.&')from theFi-ench, 
fneaning " from head to foot." /n 
Spanish this is "de pies a cabeza " 

capilla (cah pee'lyah) 

Casern (cah'sem) 

cavalgada (cah vahl gah'dah) caval- 
cade ; procession or train usually 
of people on horseback 

cavaliero (cah vah Xyay'ro) gentleman 

cavalleros de mucho valor (cah vah- 
lyay'rohs day moo'cho vah Ipr') 
gentlemen of great valor 

Chaldaic (cal day'ic) 

charivari (shah ree vah'ree) a noisy 
unmusical serenade after a wedding 

chatelaine (shat'e lain) keeper of the 
castle 

Chico (chee'co) 

chocolate con leche y bollos para 
almuerza (cho co lah'tay cone lay'- 
chay ee bo'lyohs pah'rah ahl- 
mwehr'thah) 

ciceroni (chee chay ro'nee) guides 
7oho shoui and explain to strangers 
places of inte7-est 

cigarrillo (* thee gah ree'lyo) ciga- 
rette 

Comares (co mah'race) 

contrabandista (con trah bahn dees'- 
tah) smuggler 



[364] 



VOCABULARY 



Cordova (cor'do vah) 

Corona (co ro'nah) 

corregidor (* co ray he dor') iiiayor 

Cortes (cor'tace) assejnbly of the 
states ; the legislative body of Spain 

Cristiano viejo (crees tyah'noh 
vyay'hoh) a descendant of Chris- 
tians ; one whose ancestry has no 
trace of Moots, Jews, or other non- 
Christian peoples 

Cyprian (sip'ri an) 

Darro (* dah'ro) 

Dice el sabio Aben Habuz que asi 

se defiende el Andaluz (dee'thay 

el sah'byo ah'ben ah booth' kay 

ah see' say day fyen'day el ahn- 

dah looth') 
Diego Fernandez (dyay'go fehr- 

nahn'dayth) 
Dios guarde a usted (dyohs' [one 

syllable'] gwar'day ah t oos tayth') 
Dios sabe (dyohs' [one syllable] sah'- 

bay) 
Dolores (do lo'race) " the Sorrow- 
ful" 
Dona Antonia-Molina (do'nyah ahn- 

to'nyah mo lee'nah) 
Dona Maria Palacin (do'nyah mah- 

ree'ah pah lah theen') 
Don Juan (don hwahn') 
Don Martin Yafiez de Barbudo (don 

mar teen' yah'nyayth day bar- 

boo'do) 
Don Munio Sancho de Ilinojosa 

(don moo'nyo sahn'cho day ee- 

no ho'sah) 
Don Pedro de Granada Venegas 

(don pay'dro day grab nah'dah 

vay nay'gahs) 



Don Ventura Rodriguez (don vain- 

too'rah * ro dree'gaith) 
Don Vicente (don vee thayn'tay) 
dramatis personae (dram'a tis per- 

so'nee) the characters in the play 
drawcansir (draw'can sir) braggart 
duena (dway'nyah) aft old woman, 

ge7ie rally employed in looking after 

young ladies 
duenna (doo en'a) the same as 

"dueiia" 
duro (doo'ro) dollar 

Eben Bonabben (eb'en bo nab'ben) 

Ecija (ay'thee hah) 

El Fuente del Toro (el fwen'tay del 

to'ro) 
El Ghalib (el gah'lib) 
El Gobernador Manco (el go'behr- 

nah dor' mahn'co) 
El Hayzari (el hi zah ree') 
Elizabetta of Farnese (ay lee zah- 

bet'tah ov far nay'say) 
El Pefion de los Enamorados (el 

pay nyone' day los t ay nah mo- 

rah'thos) 
el pobre Sancho no es nada sin Don 

Quixote (el po'bray sahn'cho no' 

ays t nah'thah seen don kee ho'- 

tay) 
El Tocador (el t to cah thor') 
El Torre del Espia (el * to'ray del 

ays pee'ah) 
El Ultimo Suspiro del Moro (el ool'- 

tee mo soos pee'ro del mo'ro) 
Elvira (el vee'rah) 
El Zogoybi (el zo goi bee') 
En frente del toro se hallen tesoro 

(en fren'tay del to'ro say ah'lyen 

tay so'ro) 



[365 



THE ALHAMBRA 



escopetero (ays co pay tay'ro) vuis- 

keteer 
escribano (ays cree bah 'no) laivyer, 

notary 
espartal (ays par tahl') bass weed 
Esta casa es siempre a la dispo- 
sicion de Vm. (ays'tah cah'sah 
ays syaym'pray ah lah dees po- 
see thyon day vways'trah mehr- 
thayth'; last th as in this ) 
estanque (ays tahn'kay) tank 
estudiante sopista (aystoodyahn'tay 
so pees'tah) a student living on 
charity 

fajas (fah'hahs) sashes 

Ferdinand el Santo (fer'di nand el 

san'to) 
figo (fee'go)/^ 
Fray Prudencio de Sandoval (fry 

proo dain'thyo day sahn do vahl') 
Fredegonda (fray day gon'dah) 
Fuente la Piedra (fwain'tay lah 

pyay'drah) 

Gallego (gah lyay'go) 
galliard (gal'yard) 

garbanzos (gar bahn'thohs) chick- 
peas, a sort of pulse like large peas, 

tnuch used in Spain 
Garcilaso de la Vega (gar thee lah'- 

so day lah vay'gah) 
Generalife (hay nay rah lee'fay) 
Gil Bias of Santillane (zheel' blahs' 

ov sahn tee lyahn') 
Gines Perez de Hita (hee nace' 

pay'rayth day ee'tah) 
Gomeres (go may'race) 
Gonzalvo (gon thahl'vo) 
Granada (gra nah'da) 



grande caballero (grahn'day cah- 

bah lyay'ro) grand gentlemaii 
Guadalquivir (gwah dahl kee veer') 
Guadix (t gwah theesh') 

Haxis (ha shees') 

Hegira (hej'i rah) 

Hesperian (hes pee'ri an) 

Ilic jacet Maria Palacin, uxor Mu- 
nonis Sancij De Finojosa (hick' 
jay'set ma ri'a pal'a sin uck'sor 
myoo no'nis san'si i dee fin o- 
jo'sa) 

hidalgo (e dahl'go) a Spanish noble- 
man of the lower class 

houries (hoo'riz) beautiful 7naidens 
eftdowed with unfading youth, ac- 
cording to the Rlohammedati belief 

Hussein Baba (hoo sine' bah'bah) 

Ibn Batuta (ib'n ba too'ta) 

Ibn Habuz al badise (ib'n ah booth' 

ahl bah dee'say) 
Ibn-1-Ahmar (ib nal ahh'mar) 
Ibrahim (ib ra heem') 
Ildefonso (eel day fon'so) 
lUora (ee lyo'rah) 
imperium in imperio (im pee'ri um 

in im pee'ri o) a go%)e7~nment ivith- 

in a government 
Infanta (een fahn'tah) 
infiernos (een fyehr'nohs) infernal 

regions 
Irem (ir'em) 
Ismael ben Ferrag (is mah ayl' ben 

fehr rahg') 



A 



Jacinta (hah theen'tah) 

Jaen (hah ain') 

jalecos (hah lay'cohs) jackets 

[366] 



VOCABULARY 



jalousie (zhah loo zee') an inside 

Toiiidino-l'lind tvith slats 
Jose Maria (ho say' mah ree'ah) 

Kadiga (ka dee'ga) 
Kassaba (kahs'a bah) 

La casa del Gallo de Viento (lah 
cah'sah del gah'lyo day vyain'to) 

La Cuesta de las Lagrimas (lah 
cways'tah day lahs lah'gree- 
mahs) 

ladrones (lah dro'nace) thieves, rob- 
bers 

La Mancha (lah mahn'chah) 

La Nina (lah nee'nyah) 

La Reina Coquina (lah ray'nah co- 
kee'nah) 

La Torre de los Siete Suelos (lah 
*to ray day lohs syay'tay sway'- 
lohs) 

Lindaraxa (lin da rah'sha) 

Lope de Vega (lo'pay day vay'gah) 

Los Martyros (lohs mar tee'rohs) 

Loxa (lo'hah) 

lumbreras (loom bray'rahs) any 
bodies ivhich efnit light 

Mahomet (ma hom'et) 

maja (mah'hah) " majo and maja " 

means beanx and belles of the 

loiver class 
majo (mah'ho) 
Malaga (mah'lah gah) 
Maldita sea la noche (mahl dee'tah 

say'ah lah no'chay) 
Manco (mahn'co) 

mantilla (man til'a) head covering 
for 100 men., made of lace, silk, or 

other material 



Manuel Borasco (mah nwayl' bo- 
rahs'co) 

Manuel Molina (mah nwayl' mo- 
lee'nah) 

maravedi (mar a vay'dy) aii old 
Spanish coin of small value 

Maria Antonia Sabonea (mah ree'ah 
an to'nyah sah bo nay'ah) 

Marquis of Caiesedo (mar'kwis ov 
ki ay say'do) 

Marquis of Gandul (mar'kwis ov 
gahn dool') 

Martin Yanez de Barbudo (mar- 
teen' yah'nyayth day bar boo'do) 

masmoras (mahs mo'rahs) subter- 
ranean gi-anaries 

Mateo Ximenes (mah tay'o hee- 
may'nace) 

medico (may'dee ko) physician 

Medina (ma dee'na) 

miquelets (mee kay layts') moun- 
tain soldiers 

mirador (t mee rah thor') balcony or 
room generally on the roof of the 
house 

Mohamed (mo ah'mayd) 

montero (mon tay'ro) ancient hunt- 
ing cap 

Morisco (mo ris'co) 

Muley Abul Hassan (mooli' ah'- 
bool ha'san) 

Murcia (moor'thyah) 

Musa (moo'sah) 

naivete (nah eev tay') 

Navas (nah'vahs) 

Ninguno mas'; pues, sefior, soy 
hijo de la Alhambra (ning goo'no 
mahs', pwes', say nyor', soy ee'ho 
day lah ah lahm'brah) 



[367 



THE ALHAMBRA 



Omar Ibn Hassan (o'mar ib'n ha'- 

san) 
ombre (om'bray) a game played by 

three people ; same as "tresillo" 
Osuna (o soo'nah) 

pacha (pa shah') a Moslem governor 

of a province 
Paez (pah'ayth) 
pan de Dios (pahn' day dyohs' 

[one syllable^) 
pannier (pan'yer) ivicker basket 
parterres (par tair') a^-rangetnents 

of flower beds of varying shapes 

with walks between 
paseo (pah say'o) pro?nenade, walk 
patio (pah'tyo) courtyard 
Pedrillo Pedrugo (pay dree'lyo pay- 

droo'go) 
Pedro Gil (pay'dro heel') 
Pennaflor (pay nyah flor') 
Pepe (pay'pay) 
Perdon usted por Dios hermano 

(pehr dohn' oos taid' por dyohs' 

[one syllable'] ehr mah'no) 
Peregil (pay ray heel') 
peseta (pay say'tah) a coin equal in 

value to the fifth of a duro, or 

dollar 
Pinos (pee'nohs) 
Plaza de los Aljibes (plah'thah day 

lohs ahl hee'bace) 
Plaza Nueva (plah'thah nway'vah) 
Ponce de Leon (pon'thay day lay- 

ohn') 
posada (t po sah'thah) lodging house 
Prado (t prah'tho) 
puchero (poo chay'ro) a dish com- 
posed of beef , ham, chick-peas, and 

other vegetables 

[3 



Puerta de las Granadas (pwehr'tah 
day lahs tgiah nah'thahs)"' Pome- 
granate Gate" 

Puerte del Rey (pwehr'tay del ray) 

punctilio (punk til'e o) most caj-eful 
observation of nice points of eti- 
quette and ceremony 

pundonor (poon do nor') sensitive- 
ness on the point of honor 

puro (poo'ro) cigar 

quarto (kwar'to) halfpenny 

Que angostay miserabile seria nues- 
tra vida, sino fuera tan dilatada 
y espaciosa nuestra esperanza 
(kay ahng gohs'tah ee mee say- 
rah'bee lay say ree'ah nways'- 
trah t vee'thah see no' fway ray 
tahn' t dee lah tah'thah ee ays- 
pah thyo'sah nways'trah ays pay- 
rahn'thah) 

quidnunc (kwid'nungk)"what now?" 
one who is curious to knozo all 
that is going on 

Quien quiere agua — agua mas fria 
que la nieve (kyayn' [o)ie syllable] 
kyay'ray ah'gwah, ah'gwah mahs 
free'ah kay lah nyay'vay) 

rateros (* rah tay'rohs) solitaiy foot- 
pads 

renegado (ren e gay'do) otte faith- 
less to principle or party, especially 
a person who forsakes one religious 
faith for another; in Spain, one 
who has renounced Christianity 

roscas (* rohs'cahs) round, twisted 
loaves of bread 

Ruiz de Alarcon (* rweeth' day ah- 
lar cohn') 

68] 



VOCABULARY 



Salado (t sah lah'tho) 
Salamanca (sah lah mahng'ca) 
Salmanara (sahl mah nah'rah) 
Salobrefia (sah lo bray'nyah) 
Salones grandes — camas de luxo — 
colchones de pluma (sah lo'nays 
grahn'dace, cah'mahs day loo'ho, 
cohl cho'nays day ploo'mah) 
Sancho Panza (sang'ko pan'za) 
San Fernando (sahn' fehr nahn'do) 
Santa Fe (sahn'tah fay') 
Santa Maria de Almocovara (sahn'- 
tah mah ree'ah day ahl mo co- 
vah'rah) 
Santiago (sahn tyah'go) 
scarabaeus (scar a bee'us) 
Scheherezade (sheh hay reh zah'- 

deh) 
Segovia (say go'vyah) 
se hacen ladrones legitimos (say 
ah'then lah dro'nace lay hee'tee- 
mohs) 
seneschal (sen'e shul) aii officer in 
the houses of princes and diginta- 
ries in the Middle Ages who had 
charge of feasts and domestic cere- 
monies 
senor (say nyor') sir, mister 
Sheddad (shed dahd') 
Sidi Hasan (see'dee ha'san) 
Sierra Morena (* syay'rah mo ray'- 

nah) 
Sierra Nevada (* syay'rah t nay- 

vah'thah) 
siesta al fresco (si es'ta ahl fres'co) 

a siesta, or jiap, in the open air 
Silla del More (see'lyah del mo'ro) 
sombrero (som bray'ro) 
Soto de Roma (so'to day * ro'mah) 
spolia opima (spo'li a o pi'ma) 



Tagus (tay'gus) 

talas (tah'lahs)_/^);v?i'j- 

Tarfe (tar'fay) 

Taric (tah'ric) 

tartana (tar tah'nah) a two-tvhecled 

vehicle 
Te Deum (tee' dee'um) 
tertulias (tehr too'lyahs) gatherings 

for evening cotiversation 
tesoro (tay so'ro) treasure 
tete-a-tete (tait ah tait') alone; a 

French expression, meaning lite7-- 

ally " head to head " 
Tetuan (teh twahn') 
Tia Antonia (tee'ah ahn to'nyah) 
tiembla la tierra (tyem'blah lah 

* tyay'rah) 
Torre del Vino (* to'ray del vee'no) 
torres bermejas (*to'race behr- 

may'hahs) vermilion to-oers 
trabuco (trah boo'co) a blmtderhuss 

or gun 
tresillo (tray see'lyo) a game plaved 

by three people : same as ''ombre" 

Ucles (oo'klace) 

Valdepeiias (vahl day pay'nyahs) 

Valencia (vah lain'thyah) 

Va usted con Dios, Caballero (vah' 
t oos tayth' con dyohs' \one syl- 
lable] cah bah lyay'ro) 

vega (vay'gah) a fertile plain 

ventas (vain'tahs) poor inns on roads 
far fro t) I t070us or 7'illages 

via dolorosa (vi'a dol o ro'sa) " sor- 
rowful way " 

Wa le ghalib ile Alah (wa lay' gah'- 
lib il lei lah') 



[369] 



THE ALH AMBRA 

Xenil (hay neel') Zacatin (thah cah teen') 

Zayda (zi'da) 
Yusef Abul Hagig (yoo'sef ah'bool Zegris (thay grees') 

ha gheeg') Zorahayda (zo ra hi'da) 

Yusef ben Mohammed (yoo'sef ben Zorayda (zo ri'da) 

mo ham'med) 



[370] 



